Select an Electronic Health Record
A best-fit solution balances patient and practitioner needs, cost, and capability.
- You have been tasked with selecting an electronic health record (EHR) for your institution. It will also be your job to determine which operational processes will be affected by the new application.
- It is life and death.
- EHR is not a typical customer information system. EHR data is extremely sensitive. A data breach is not only financially threatening for health care providers, but also it can be life threatening for patients.
- Limited control.
- IT is held accountable for the risks associated with siloed health data, but IT has limited ability to control the actions of the health care professionals that created the data.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
- Establish a definition for EHR.
- EHR is defined differently across geographies and health practices. Get all teams speaking the same language for the selection process.
- Buy the best for you.
- Examine all options before buying best of breed. Keep the budget intact with a selection approach rooted in your institution’s unique requirements, not on the vendor’s overall performance.
- EHR initiatives are about changing the DNA of the organization. Improve your processes to adhere to the EHR and not the other way around.
Impact and Result
- Leverage Info-Tech’s comprehensive three-phase approach to EHR selection projects: assess your organization’s preparedness to go into the selection stage. Our knowledgebase is derived from thousands of hours advising with health care institutions across the globe.
- Selection of the right tool is a critical step in delivering a safer, faster, and more meaningful experience for all players in the health care environment.
- Enable IT to be a trusted partner in EHR selection, while health care professionals will own the requirements and be involved from the beginning.
- Understand where the EHR market is going. Avoid paving the cow path with Info-Tech’s vendor feature-set-based approach to understanding the art of the possible for EHR.
- Take advantage of traceable and auditable selection tools to run an effective evaluation and selection process. Be prepared to answer the retroactive question “Why this EHR?” with documentation of your selection process and outputs.
Member Testimonials
After each Info-Tech experience, we ask our members to quantify the real-time savings, monetary impact, and project improvements our research helped them achieve. See our top member experiences for this blueprint and what our clients have to say.
Client
Experience
Impact
$ Saved
Days Saved
BearingPoint
Guided Implementation
9/10
$25,000
18
good, clear and relevant explanation of the blueprint
California Department Of Technology
Guided Implementation
10/10
N/A
5
Speed of response, the details of response, expertise of the subject matter expert.
BearingPoint
Guided Implementation
9/10
N/A
N/A
Very good call with knowledgeable analysts. Helpful suggestion of adopting agile approach as a differentiation. Unfortunate that there is no re... Read More
Department of Health and Human Services*
Workshop
10/10
$25,000
20
Gleb's facilitation was critical for the team to progress through the tool. The team found the tool to be a very logical and concise way of approac... Read More
Department of Health and Human Services*
Guided Implementation
10/10
$31,833
20
Gleb is amazing and his facilitation and feedback is invaluable. He is a pleasure to work with!
Workshop: Select an Electronic Health Record
Workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.
Module 1: Introduce EHR and Define the Application Selection Approach
The Purpose
- Introduce EHR and understand need for the project.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Understanding of what EHR is.
- Current state of selection framework.
Activities
Outputs
Set expectations.
- Understanding of the workshop scope, format, and schedule.
Distinguish between overall EHR initiative and selection project.
- Understanding of what is involved in a selection project.
Introduce EHR.
- Unified definition of EHR.
Surface vendor landscape.
- View into the key vendors EHR marketplace.
Introduce application selection process.
- Understanding of Info-Tech’s approach to selection.
Discuss challenges with the existing application selection process.
- List of current pain points for selecting applications.
Identify benefits and opportunities for the application selection process.
- List of current growth opportunities in the selection process.
Define project objectives.
- Definition of project objectives.
Align selection project objectives with business objectives.
- Alignment between project objectives and organizational objectives.
Outline a target state approach to application selection.
- Selection approach tailored to the organization.
Module 2: Understand EHR Capability Framework
The Purpose
- Gain a firm understanding of Info-Tech’s approach to requirements gathering.
- Examine EHR opportunities and strengths.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Repeatable requirements gathering processes.
- Understanding of EHR current state.
Activities
Outputs
Review requirements gathering framework (elicit, analyze, validate).
- Understanding of the three phases of the requirements gathering framework.
Discuss current EHR pain points to be addressed.
- List of pain point with current EHR.
Discuss EHR opportunities.
- List of opportunities for a new EHR.
Introduce four domains of EHR business capability map.
- Understanding of the EHR capability map.
Module 3: Elicit Top-Level Functional Requirements
The Purpose
- Collect top-level requirements for EHR.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Member will have a jumping-off point to dive deeper into requirements with business stakeholders.
Activities
Outputs
Map selection project objectives to EHR capabilities.
- Alignment between selection project objectives and EHR art of the possible.
Establish top-level requirements for preventing health challenges.
- List of top-level requirements.
Establish top-level requirements for diagnosing health needs.
- List of top-level requirements.
Establish top-level requirements for treating patients.
- List of top-level requirements.
Establish top-level requirements for facilitating and monitoring recovery.
- List of top-level requirements.
Module 4: Outline a Selection Roadmap
The Purpose
- Build a roadmap for selection and delineate responsibilities.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Creation of initiative roadmap with metrics.
Activities
Outputs
Prioritize top-level requirements.
- Prioritized list of requirements ready for vendors.
Build selection roadmap.
- Tailored selection roadmap.
Roles and responsibilities.
- RACI for the selection project.
Develop communication plan.
- Right-sized approach for communicating the selection decision to the business.
Establish project metrics.
- List of relevant SMART metrics for the project.