I was recently talking to someone about a major progressive hospital system that’s been using technology and EHR for a long time. This person then told me that it felt like this hospital system was in its 15th year of its EHR implementation.
I’m sure that most hospital organizations can relate to this statement. Each hospital system will replace the number of years with a different number, but I think every hospital probably believes that their EHR implementation is never complete. Certainly you might have a go live event with the initial installation of the software, but that’s far from a fully implemented EHR system.
This concept reminds me of two things we’ve talked about before. The first is a controversial post I did called The Tyranny of “Time” – EHR Efficiency Has a Lifecycle. I put up a chart which I think illustrates an important lesson about the lifecycle of an EHR implementation and many disagreed with the chart. I still stand behind the principle that time has a way of eroding even the best EHR implementation. So, you better have a long term plan to deal with the Tyranny of Time.
The second is a comment from a hospital CIO who made a comment on one of my posts many years ago. In the post I’d commented about how we’d implemented a new practice EHR in about 2 weeks time frame. The doctor was opening his practice in 2 weeks and so we literally crunched in the entire EHR implementation and purchasing process into those 2 weeks so they didn’t have to start on paper charts. The Hospital CIO’s comment on that article was “You lost me at 2 weeks EHR implementation.” Of course, this was an EHR implementation at a solo practice.
Although, even in the case of a small ambulatory practice, the EHR implementation is never done. At hospitals there’s always more that can be done to improve how you use your EHR. I don’t think it’s a bad thing to think that you’re in your XX year of your EHR implementation. As long as you still create milestones so that staff feel the sense of accomplishment in the process.
