The Golden Rules of EHR Implementation

Apr 26, 2012 | Blog

Healthcare IT News posts a follow up article to their 7 most deadly sins of EMR implementation discussing the 6 Golden Rules to follow when implementing a new EMR solution. They spoke with Rosemarie Nelson, principal of the MGMA Consulting Group, and asked for her opinion on what to keep in mind.

1. Include nursing staff.  Nurses account for approximately 75% of EMR use, while doctors only account for around 25%.  Not including the nursing staff is a huge oversight.

2. Recognize the opportunity to change and improve your workflow.  Look for ways to improve the overall workflow, not just the way the data is stored.  You are investing a lot of time and energy into making EHR successful, and missing the opportunity to optimize the processes could cost more in the long run.

3. Schedule even more training.  People expect EMR to be simple and user friendly, but unfortunately, some of the regulations and rules surrounding patient data make that hard. The more the staff is trained to work with these restrictions, the easier things will go.

4. Anticipate the stress and effort required over several months. This is another situation where more training can benefit everyone. It’s impossible to take full advantage of the EMR system while learning the ins-and-outs, so schedule follow up training after people are more familiar with the software. Introduce any new features that have been implemented since the go-live date.

5. Round on users (providers and clinical support staff).  Besides just teaching the users new features, take time to go back and review their processes and how they are using the EMR system.  There are many ways to optimize their processes and save time.

6. Personalize and recognize the differences among physicians.  Many EMR systems allow multiple ways of getting a task complete. Be sure to show them the different options available, and let the user determine how they want to complete an operation.

More information is available via Healthcare IT News.

Share This
Your browser is out of date!
