SMMC's EMR journey began over 3 years ago when our then COO, Dr. Sang-ick Chang, started fund raising activities for an e-prescribing project. His activities were so successful that he was able to obtain multiple funding sources and syndicate them towards a new common goal of a complete AEMR. Dr. Chang was subsequently promoted to CEO, and therein we obtained one of the crucial prerequisites for any AEMR project, top executive sponsorship. This sponsorship extended to 2 other VP's in the organization as they, like Dr. Chang, were primary care physicians. One of these VP's, Dr. Kunnappilly, became the Physician Champion of the project.
Another important prerequisite for an effective AEMR project is end user buy-in. We did this first by including end users in the vendor selection process. We organized a "demo day" at the Medical Center where the three top vendors gave presentations of their products; we also asked the vendors to demonstrate the use of their product in a defined clinical scenario. To accomodate the large number of people, we rotated them through each of the vendors' presentations and asked them to fill out a somewhat extensive survey rating how different aspects of an AEMRs' functionality and features were addressed by each vendor. The results were then tabulated and used to assist in elevation of one vendor to preferred status.
User ownership was further supported by forming SuperUser and Clinical Standards committees. These committees have made decisions regarding stardardization of templates, workflows, policies and procedures regarding AEMR use. The committees include all of the end users who would be incorporating the AEMR in their daily work: clerks, medical assistants, nurses, physicians, physical therapists, etc. These committees will continue throughout the life of the AEMR to act as a governance structure for change management and evolution of the application.
As implementation day approaches, we are doing lunchtime demos to all of the separate clinic sites that provide an overview of the new AEMR in regards to its look and feel and how it may affect their workflow.
I only wish that we had a well developed intranet. We could then host a web page viewable by all employees charting progress of the project, providing a FAQ on the AEMR, showing links to different learning resources and giving the opportunity for anyone to ask questions of the core implementation team; many times emails just get lost in the noise.
Mike
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3 comments:
Mike,
Thank you for ths excellent summary of the foundational aspects of your AEMR efforts. Kudos for taking on the "demo days" so that as many staff as possible could feel as though they participated in the decision-making. Did the participants in the demos (SMMC staff) have the survey questions in advance, so they would know what to look for? Were they given an incentive to participate in the demos?
SA,
Yes, we distributed the survey questions before the participants went into the demos. They were pretty detailed with specific questions using a 1-5 rating scale and then some open ended questions and room for comments.
We did have an incentive of free food!
You discovered the magic incentive - food! We may just have to add that as an evaluation criteria :)
SA
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