The following is a guest article by Donna Palmer, RN, Manager of Professional Services at Juno Health
As easy as it is for hospital leaders and administrators to treat an electronic health record (EHR) implementation as a technological upgrade, a project of this magnitude impacts the facility’s culture and daily workflows in equal measure. To create a solution that works within your broader hospital culture, prioritize communication and multidisciplinary collaboration from day one to post-launch.
Communicate from Selection to Implementation
EHR implementations face challenges that go beyond the technical because the platform touches every function in the hospital and must answer diverse needs. That’s why the project can’t happen in a vacuum, and the lines of communication need to stay wide open from start to finish.
Pave the Way for Buy-In
Collaboration and change management are crucial as you work to overhaul your EHR. Depending on where you’re starting from—transitioning from paper or just improving fragmented processes—teams just want familiarity and often struggle to adapt.
Involving staff members from the beginning accounts for their needs so they don’t feel compelled to force old workflows into a new system. The challenge is that chief nursing officers and clinicians simply don’t have enough time in the day, and they’re often too busy seeing patients and passing meds to commit to an implementation project.
Follow a clear communication process to engage well before kickoff and keep employees informed across the project:
- Ask for input across roles to understand workflow challenges and desired improvements
- Involve end users in viewing product demos to gather opinions about potential EHRs
- Host prelaunch town halls across shifts to enable nurses, social workers, and staff members in all roles to ask questions and stay informed
Close Cultural Barriers
Remember that your hospital employs and treats people from all walks of life. Because introducing a new EHR is more than a simple operational shift, it must also account for broader cultural factors.
Small nuances can drastically impact the utility of the technology and its long-term adoption. This may mean integrating translation capabilities to break down language barriers between staff members and patients or even building the EHR to accommodate diverse approaches for clinicians trained around the world.
Break Down Silos with Multidisciplinary Teams
Despite their best intentions, many hospitals focus on the wrong priorities as EHR implementations get underway. Clinical, pharmacy, integration, and administration teams plan in silos, solving problems for the squeakiest wheel. However, making decisions that benefit one team can harm processes for others.
Prioritize End Users
Rethink your approach by asking all end users what they truly need. Involving clinical stakeholders helps to take their temperature as you progress and informs changes throughout the project. Start by adding two crucial steps to streamline the process:
- Establish a multidisciplinary steering committee to prevent siloing project management teams
- Hold regular meetings to share decision logs, discuss dependencies, and align timelines to prevent bottlenecks across regulatory and building teams
Keep Communication Open After the Go-Live Date
The stakes are arguably higher after new technology debuts, becoming a pressure test for end users who finally get to use it and see its value. As a digital consumer, you’ve seen this between products that have flown or flopped, but as a clinical leader, the trajectory of an EHR implementation is in your hands. The best opportunity you have to ensure success is postlaunch follow-up.
Streamline the First Six Months
Between navigating the EHR platform and acclimating to workflow changes, recognize the learning curves and adjustments for your staff. Creating feedback loops with these users at specific benchmarks can help identify issues with the EHR and ensure smooth workflows.
- Months 1-3: Conduct post-go-live surveys and town halls to collect feedback and identify recurring problems, such as workflows requiring too many clicks or unnecessary features
- Months 1-6: Maintain the multidisciplinary steering committee and leverage user feedback to inform post-go-live optimization, manage changes, and address broken processes
A successful EHR implementation is defined by how your hospital’s culture adapts to the new reality. By making the build process inclusive and centering the solution on end users, you can mitigate staff frustration and realize your software’s full potential. Empower your staff to improve every facet of patient care.
Donna Palmer is the Manager of Professional Services at Juno Health. A nurse by trade and former director of operations for Ambulatory Surgery Centers, Donna has seen the evolution of EHRs throughout her extensive experience in clinical settings, including spearheading EHR implementations for a small hospital network.
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