Great support is the key to success
Throughout the ordeal of changing our EHR, there was one factor that kept the process on-track: excellent support. Because of the resources provided by the health system, the practice did not need to rely on the expensive and sometimes less-than-responsive vendor to accomplish the transition. There was an entire team of individuals on- and off-site, dedicated to seeing us successfully transition from one EHR to the other. Even as the EHR "champion, Chris found his optimism tested, and now, almost a year after the transition, he is just starting to regain his prior efficiency.
Lessons learned
There were three important lessons learned from this experience that are relevant to practices planning to switch EHR systems. First, make sure that you are picking the right EHR to which to transition, as changing will be a daunting task and added to the cost of the new software will be a cost in lost productivity. Second, make sure all members of the practice have as complete an understanding as possible about what to anticipate and expect the significant changes in the way things are recorded, stored, and processed. And third, since "no practice is an island," carefully plan and clarify who will be your main sources of support when the inevitable frustrations – which you could not anticipate – develop.
Dr. Skolnik is associate director of the family medicine residency program at Abington (Pa.) Memorial Hospital and professor of family and community medicine at Temple University, Philadelphia. He is editor in chief of Redi-Reference, a software company that creates medical handheld references. Dr. Notte practices family medicine and health care informatics at Abington Memorial. They are partners in EHR Practice Consultants. Contact them at info@ehrpc.com.