Engaging Your EHR Implementation Team

Creating and managing an effective electronic health record (EHR) implementation team is a crucial process and can make or break your EHR implementation. Once you have identified your EHR implementation team, follow these guiding principles to engage your EHR implementation team as you implement your EHR system.

• • • Engage all of the staff: You should identify staff or ask for volunteers. Try to enable your team members to pursue their interests.
    • Identify roles and responsibilities: You should set expectations for EHR implementation team members and spell out how team members will relate to each other.
    • Set aside non-patient-care time to meet: The staff’s top priority should be patient care, so it is important to be respectful of patients and meet outside of patient-care time.
    • Demonstrate commitment to providing staff with adequate time: Allow time during normal operating hours for staff to attend to EHR implementation tasks and respect their work-life balance.
    • Acknowledge extra effort and celebrate milestones: Be sure to let team members know that they are doing an important job and provide rewards for achieving key milestones.
    • Acknowledge that the staff holds the answers: The staff knows best how changes will affect productivity, and they are best positioned to answer questions.
    • Support the desire to achieve success: Be sure that the staff understands the benefits of EHRs and point out how different areas of the practice (front desk, medical records, phone nurse, referral employees, billing, etc.) will specifically benefit from EHR implementation.
    • Keep your eyes on the prize: You should help the team stay focused on the task at hand and avoid pitfalls or tangents in the process that can set back the EHR implementation effort.
    • Celebrate success: Be sure to celebrate successes – both major and minor – to keep the EHR implementation team motivated throughout the entire process.

For more information:

For more information on building and engaging an EHR implementation team, see the following resources.

• • Step 4: Conduct Training & Implement an EHR System
  • Creating a Leadership Team for Successful EHR Implementation
  • When should I create the electronic health record implementation team?
  • Who are the key stakeholders during electronic health record implementation?