The Problems with Transitioning to an Electronic Health Record

There was an interesting article in Healthcare IT news about users on user dissatisfaction with the electronic health record at
http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/ehr-users-dissatisfied-consider-switch?topic=08,17,19

The article brings to light the importance of healthcare providers having essential informatics knowledge.  The two problems identified were:

• Providers not having enough knowledge to make decisions on purchase of a system
• Software developers not meeting the needs of practice settings

 It is a tragic situation because electronic systems are very expensive and implementation is time intensive. In addition, healthcare is very complex.  We have much work to accomplish as we work to develop an information exchange system.

How to Implement EHRs from HealthIT

Linda and I just returned from the 2012 SINI meeting.  We heard several presentations on implementing EHRs and meaningful use. You can expect updates to the website that we maintain to support Informatics and Nursing textbook over the next few weeks.  One example is the resource below added to Chapter 18 under the Implementation section.  The update is at http://dlthede.net/Informatics/Chap18BasicEHR/chap18.html 

How to Implement EHRs. A helpful site describing 6 steps from assessing readiness to continued quality improvement with links to a little more information about each step. The FAQs in the links may prove the best source of detail information. Use the links from tabs on the top of the page too!
http://www.healthit.gov/providers-professionals/ehr-implementation-steps