Issue Date: January 1, 2005

Vol. 9 •Issue 1 • Page 26
Platform for Growth

Seven Keys to a Successful EMR Implementation

In October 1997, I led a project for a large hospital that went live in every clinical and operational department with an advanced electronic medical record (EMR) and clinical care application. The project was unprecedented in scope and timing, according to the software company. Upon reflecting on my approach to leading the project as the CIO and vice president of information technology, the following key recommendation points were instrumental to the success of the project:

Project team selection. Hand pick the most qualified clinical resources from within the organization whom you can least afford to give up from their existing clinical role. This is important to ensure a good investment in the internal support resources downstream and for leading other clinicians to accept the system.

Executive commitment and alignment. Issue a regular executive project plan briefing to all administrative staff in order to establish and maintain alignment on the project and thus secure a uniform commitment to what it will take to be successful. You will be highly dependent upon multiple departments' cooperation and executive support during an EMR project. Hospital-wide organizational alignment is critical to success.

Consultant selection. Exercise extreme due diligence in finding a consultant resource with whom you can partner for your project. Make sure consultants are experts on the product and have a proven track record for implementing the software with a best-demonstrated-practices approach.

Triad team model. Once you select a consulting resource then you need to establish a team model that uses a triad approach, which can be used to leverage strengths of each (consultant/vendor/hospital). You must also establish alignment across consultants, software vendors and hospital resources in order to be successful.

Project implementation plan. Commit to a frequent and thorough review of the project implementation work plan to ensure that it accurately reflects the level of detail and accountability for completion by specified tasks and time lines. The work plan should be part of the contract and thus should be worked on religiously to make it a "living and breathing" document for the project.

Testing and QA. Be sure to have definite commitment and participation from all departments for testing the system thoroughly, but ensure there are two separate and distinct levels of testing activity. First, conduct unit testing (also known as modular testing) to validate functionality and database configuration. Then conduct full integrated testing to validate a multitude of integration considerations inclusive of functionality, database configuration, interfaces, reports, workflow, etc. This is critical for making a go-live decision.

Training. Make a serious commitment to training both your internal analyst team on technical system configuration as well as your rank-and-file staff on workflow-based use of the system. Train on a best-practices workflow-based approach and provide ongoing training and proficiency skills development for end-users. Approach training as a "knowledge-transfer" process.

Rod Walker, FACHE, FHFMA

Mr. Walker is partner and COO at Negley, Ott & Associates, Inc., in Savannah, Ga. You can contact him at rod.walker@noac.com.