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Tip: Create a multidisciplinary team to get a full perspective

EHR Connection, June 25, 2007

Joel N. Diamond, MD, FAAFP, convened nurses, housekeeping, volunteers, physicians at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) St. Margaret Memorial Hospital--virtually every position that the EHR would affect--and asked them all how they would interact with hardware in the patients' rooms. All specialists except the physicians wanted computers in patients' rooms. "The physicians got outvoted because they didn't understand the transparency of technology," he said.

Once the physicians learned how much nurses and others relied on computers to do their jobs, they agreed. Because the physicians were hesitant at first, Diamond made sure that UPMC would have enough computers. He didn't want physicians to need a computer to give care and not be able to find one.

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