How does your current process work?
Health organizations often start implementing an EHR (electronic health record) system with the best intentions. But somewhere along the way things go awry. And in some cases, it was doomed from the beginning.
EHR systems are intricate, detailed, complex projects that change all the time. No matter when you started implementing, the results have to change to meet your ever-changing needs. And just when you think you have it all figured out, the rules begin to change again.
Start With A Map
From the smallest offices to the largest care centers, the only way to ensure a solid system is to map it out from the beginning. The level of detail your mapping reaches depends on your business requirements and your workflow processes. Where do your employee contacts exist? Where do your client contacts occur? If you don’t proactively account for every component, it can hinder the optimal solution once implementation has begun.
Your Map Helps Select The System
It’s easy to get excited about the “bells and whistles” of a system as you go through a demo. But what seems like a good idea in a demonstration often has little bearing on how it works in the real world. Do the “bells and whistles” even matter to your office? Are they something you’ll ever use? With a fully outlined map in hand, you can evaluate the system for how well it matches your distinct needs.
Design Team
In many busy offices, specific divisions or key players handle the entire process. They plan, they evaluate, they select, they implement, and only then do they discover gaping holes exist in the process. How thorough your map was created depends on who designed the map. How many people were involved? Did you have representation from every aspect? If IT will support it, were they involved in the process? How about office staff? How about clients? While all of this may sound expensive and overwhelming, just think about how much effort it costs to replace a system that never worked correctly from the moment it was installed.
Success with an EHR or another type of enterprise project isn’t by chance. Failure always stems from not planning thoroughly for the entire process. In the vast majority of the time, failure stems from management making decisions in a closed environment, not taking everything into account. The more questions you ask from the beginning, the better your outcome will perform.
