I guess because it's Valentine's Day this week, the love theme is on my mind as well as others.
This little girl represents millions of children who need medical cures of one type or another, and I'm sure their parents want the hospitals where they spend weeks on end being probed, tested and operated on to have the very best patient care available anywhere! That means having the best technology, too, doesn't it?
This may sound far fetched, but are you feeling the LOVE of your EMR/EHR? Many say a resounding, "NO!" And according to a recent study by KLAS, a whopping 50% of providers were looking to replace their ambulatory EMRs, compared to 30% in 2011. In addition, a recent Health Data Management webinar noted more than 30% of ALL new EMR purchases are made to replace an existing EMR.
As a patient and healthcare consultant, this is scary for me - let alone Ms. Q Public. Think about it... your local hospital just spent five years and tens of millions of dollars to implement the EMR system they have now. While doing so, their IT costs skyrocketed and they had to lay off staff because of financial issues. Now the leaders are meeting in closed doors to discuss whether or not to dump the current EMR for a newer, more robust or technically up-to-date model. Yikes, yes this means starting the whole process of interviewing EMR companies, IT folks and consultants, choosing, buying, customizing and implementing the technology and then training all the staff to use it -- all over again!
At this point, any rational person would be asking, "If they make a change now, how will that impact patient care?" or "If they stay with the 'less than perfect' technology, how will that play out in a year, two or ten?"
Well, making a major technology change like an EMR is hard because you have LOTs of TIME and RESOURCES that went into purchasing, customizing and implementing it. This is true with any large implementation, but we have patients' lives at stake here. EMR technology is still in its infancy and is more of a static database than technology to help improve healthcare delivery. And while the technology is changing, it needs to change a LOT MORE to be interoperable so it will truly meet the needs of the medical community.
The fact is though, as we've seen in non-medical ERP system overhauls or complete changes, you need to have a boat-load of organizational development consultants on hand from the beginning of the conversation through all the change. They are the folks that will help your staff "keep it together" by helping them understand the change and adapt to it. They can also help your staff with difficult patient interactions that are bound to happen during any major change initiative in your hospital.
I'd suggest that you wait 'til next week to make any decisions one way or the other. This is supposed to be a happy week!
Happy Valentine's Day!
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TBD Consulting has a proven track record for ensuring staff and physician adoption of EMR/EHR system implementations as well as Lean Healthcare. Whether you need assistance to create a training department or organizational change department, help your existing training organization meet the needs of the ongoing changes, or simply need "extra hands" to meet your deadlines or ROI goals, please contact Jonena. She and her qualified staff are here to assist you with your organizational development, coaching and training initiatives. Call us today: 602-263-1961.
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