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Tip of the week: Consider these 10 change management tips when implementing EHRs

HIM Connection, October 30, 2007

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Bonnie Kaplan, PhD, FACMI, a lecturer at the Yale Center for Medical Informatics in New Haven, CT, offers the following change management tips:

1. Heavily involve staff members in EHR-related decisions and design.
2. Enlist the help of widely respected experts to serve as opinion leaders and to aid in the change process.
3. Work gradually and emphasize the benefits of adopting the change.
4. Provide honest appraisals of the situation without undue hype or pessimism.
5. Listen to the complaints, and use these ideas for improvement and to control the frequency of changes.
6. Pay attention to how the people, the organization, and the technology all interact.
7. Remember that the people are more important than the technology, and that the goal isn't the technology or use of technology, but improved patient care.
8. Ensure that implementation plans mesh with how people think about their work and what their roles and work mean to them.
9. Incorporate formative evaluation into the process to check progress and identify adjustments to facilitate a smooth process.
10. Plan for the expected, but also be on the lookout for unexpected occurrences and consequences.

This tip was adapted from the November 2007 issue of Electronic Health Records Briefing. For more information and additional tips, click here.

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