EHR Implementation: How Common Blunders Can Alienate Your Patients

Many snafus associated with EHR implementation have little to do with the technology but rather how it is prepared before adoption and ultimately used.

When Genesis Ob/Gyn took the first steps to installing an electronic health record system in its seven practices, there was a lot of focus on choosing the right system with the appropriate capabilities.

But after implementation, when the system continually went offline or ran painfully slow, resulting in long patient wait times and chaotic days of not knowing which patients were coming in and why, the Tucson, Ariz., group realized there’s a lot more to EHR implementation than the system and what it can do.

Many practices are adopting an EHR for the first time, with various surveys finding 70% to 80% putting in systems, double the rate of three years ago. Almost every health IT implementation comes with hurdles and blunders. It can be frustrating when blunders affect the patient experience, but many are common and can be prevented by learning from the mistakes of other physicians.