1 ADVANCE for Executive Insight

editorial
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Gearing Up &
Saving Up for EHR
PRESIDENT
General MANAGER
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Editorial
EDITOR
MANAGING EDITOR
WEB MANAGER
Ann Wiest Kielinski
W.M. “Woody” Kielinski
Lynn Nace
Adrianne O’Brien
Jill Hoffman
Jennifer Montone
Does your organization have a mobility
access strategy that provides its
clinicians and patients with access to
electronic medical records? In a May poll
conducted by KPMG LLP on electronic
health record (EHR) deployment by hospitals
and health systems, about half the
leaders surveyed said that they didn’t know.
That surprised me a bit, but the good
news is that 49 percent of business administrators
at hospitals or health systems say
they are more than halfway to completing
full electronic health record (EHR) system
deployment.
Seesawing again, though, many hospital
leaders have doubts about the level of
funding their organizations have planned
to support it, according to the KPMG poll.
The survey found that 48 percent of
health system business leaders said they
are only somewhat comfortable with the
level of budgeting their organization has
planned for EHR deployment. Nine percent
said they weren’t comfortable at all
while 18 percent said they were unsure.
Only 25 percent said they were very comfortable.
“There is a level of uneasiness as to
whether there is adequate funding to complete
these projects,” said Gary Anthony,
principal with KPMG Healthcare. “In
most organizations, EHR deployment will
most likely be one of the most transformational
projects that they’ve ever undertaken,
as well as one of the largest investments
outside of the construction of a new hospital
they’ve ever made. Yet, many organizations
view EHR as just an IT project and
that may be why we are seeing multiple
extensions to scope, timeline and budget.”
In terms of resource strategies used to
complete EHR deployment, 46 percent of
hospital leaders indicated that they are using
a multiple resource strategy. This was
followed by leveraging existing staff (16
percent), hiring new or additional staff
(13 percent) and securing third party assistance
(10 percent). If you’re unsure what
resources your organization will use for deploying
an EHR system, you’re note alone.
Fifteen percent said they didn’t know.
The issues surrounding implementing
an EHR system are vast and complex, but
Cheryl Parker, PhD, RN-BC, FHIMSS,
gets back to basics in a web article titled
“Avoiding the Domino Effect: Evaluating
Workflows Before Adopting New Technology.”
She writes that new healthcare
technology implementations should never
be made within the vacuum of a single department.
The key is to remember that any
process change has the potential to impact
everyone from admitting staff to physicians
and nurses to pharmacists, which is
why every significant technology implementation
must begin with enterprisewide
planning and impact analyses.
Sounds like a good place to start.
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executiveinsight and enter “Domino Effect” in the keyword box.
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