MANAGING EHR IMPLEMENTATION CHALLENGES 2

Managing EHR Implementation Challenges

Over the past fifteen years many healthcare organizations have been implementing
electronic health records (EHR) in their facilities. Despite requiring substantial organizational,
human and financial resources, many organizations consider EHR a worthwhile investment
because it leads to increased efficiency, better patient care, less errors, and reduced cost of care.
Given these benefits, it may be assumed that everyone in a healthcare organization may welcome
EHR implementation. This is, however, not often the case. For various reasons, many employees
may resist implementation of EHR despite its many potential benefits.
Why employees may resist EHR implementation
When it comes to EHR implementation, buy-in from staff is key to its success. Getting
this buy-in is, however, difficult for various reasons. One of them is misperceptions about EHR
that some employees may have (Barrett, 2018). Rather than seeing its potential benefits to the
organization and to themselves, some employees may view EHR as coming to take their jobs
(Barrett, 2018). Such perceptions may lead to a fall in motivation of employees because of
feelings that their job is no longer secure and that their skills and efforts are not valued by the
organization.
Another reason for resistance to EHR implementation could be anxiety regarding
computer use (Barrett, 2018). This is especially the case with older staff who may have not dealt
much with computers. It is human nature to avoid situations or systems that one is not familiar
with. Thus, staff members that are not familiar with technology systems may resist EHR
implementation because it takes them out of their comfort zone.

MANAGING EHR IMPLEMENTATION CHALLENGES 3
Creating buy-in through effective communication
Most of the issues that lead to resistance to EHR implementation are due to poor
communication. Before implementing EHR it is important that the employer gets the views of
staff through scheduling regular meetings where they can freely express their fears, worries, and
concerns (Heath & Porter, 2019). It makes no sense addressing a problem one is not familiar
with.
The first step in creating buy-in is to explain that EHR is not coming to replace any job
but to help employees work more efficiently. Rather than just explaining the benefits of EHR in
general terms, it is important that one explains how each employee will benefit from using EHR
(Barrett, 2018) . This is because not all employees will use the system in the same way. In
addition to fears of losing job, the employer should listen to any other concerns that employees
may have about EHR implementation and address them appropriately.
Creating buy-in through training
The most effective way of creating a buy-in for EHR implementation among employees
is through thorough training before implementing the system (Palvia et al., 2015). This training
should be personalized because different employees may have different learning needs. To this
end it is important that employers get baseline demographic information about all employees
before the system’s implementation (Palvia et al., 2015). This information includes EHR
experience, age, length of time they have worked in the hospital, attitude to computer use, and
computer skills that they possess.
Employers should communicate to employees that older employees, those with few to no
computer skills, and those who have anxiety about using computers will be subjected to more

MANAGING EHR IMPLEMENTATION CHALLENGES 4
training than the rest of the staff. They should communicate that all employees will be trained
‘hands-on’ until they have proficient enough to use the EHR systems (Palvia et al., 2015). Thanks
to such training, no employee should have any worry about being required to use a system that
they are ill-prepared to use.
Conclusion
The transition from paper documentation to EHR systems is likely to continue because of
the many benefits that the system provides to healthcare organizations. For individual hospitals,
however, the transition can be tough especially if there is little to no buy-in from staff who are
meant to use the system. With effective training and communication, healthcare organizations
can easily acquire the desired buy-in needed for successful EHR implementation.

MANAGING EHR IMPLEMENTATION CHALLENGES 5

References

Barrett, A. K. (2018). Electronic health record (EHR) organizational change: explaining
resistance through profession, organizational experience, and EHR communication
quality. Health communication, 33(4), 496-506.
Heath, M., & Porter, T. H. (2019). Change management overlooked: physician perspectives on
EHR implementation. American Journal of Business, 34(1), 19-36.
Palvia, P., Jacks, T., & Brown, W. S. (2015). Critical Issues in EHR Implementation: Provider
and Vendor Perspectives. CAIS, 36, 36.