Strategic Plan to Implement an EMR System Project in a Fictional Hospital Unit

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Table of Contents

Introduction
EMR Implementation Procedure
Outcomes and Findings
The Assessment of the Case
SWOT Analysis
Conclusion
References

Introduction

The current paper is devoted to analyzing the case of implementing the electronic medical record system (EMR) in New Jersey’s medical center Mefferson Central Hospital. Strategic planning of implementing the EMR system includes discussing the organizational, digital, and training considerations. The fundamental problems to address are leadership and staff training factors. These two features ensure the efficient implementation and organization of EMR technologies.

EMR Implementation Procedure

Before choosing the vendor and testing the technologies, the first step was to find the prominent leaders who would prepare the staff for the changes. The essential components of any digitalization are the proper leadership strategy and team selection (Eastman, Garets, & McCarthy, 2021). Carefully chosen leaders can direct the organizational process to digitalize through appropriate leadership strategies (Eastman et al., 2021). The strategic leadership team type was selected for EMR implementation because it perfectly suits the eventual changes. Such leaders are able to convey the essential mission of the EMR to all the workers and patients. As a result, the necessity of the new system was discussed adequately with all the staff members. Moreover, it is essential to note that the leaders’ team and the strategic approach encouraged workers to take courses in EMR usage.

The second step was finding the specialized IT and EMR systems, management teams. The digital system performance turned out to be quite efficient. The general “software aligned with clinician need and workflows” (Scott et al., 2018, p.4). Moreover, the ethical approach discussing the patients’ safety considerations was applied. The IT team developed personal information protection systems to prevent data leakage. However, the significant drawback of strategic planning was the lack of future optimization and renovation software. As a result, the nurses have faced problems using the system efficiently because of the system disruptions caused by the optimization issues. Such a situation caused the delay of the project execution.

The third step was to propose appropriate training for the staff in order to enable the efficient usage of the EMR systems. It was pretty challenging to design the proper training programs considering all the staff’s working schedules. During the training, the in-real-life practice method was used to ensure the high quality of the technology implementation (Geale et al., 2020). Even though all the staff took the appropriate theoretical and practical training thanks to the leaders’ team, some problems were detected. The planning focused mainly on developing the proper training leaving the subsequent clinicians technical support without attention. As a result, when the EMR was set for the practice, many clinicians experienced problems with operation. This problem was solved thanks to the collaborative work of leaders and IT workers.

The general measurements of outcome were reached through several factors. The first one is the reduction of the paperwork for nurses and clinicians, including filing the patients’ charts and schedules. The second factor is the decrease in the patients’ stay-time and the readmissions (Barry et al., 2020). The third factor is the affiliation of the workload for nurses and clinicians. One of the essential indicators of the positive effects of the EMR implementation is the reduction of medication errors involving the human factor (Beck et al., 2018). The EMR allowed the clinicians to spend less time on paperwork paying more attention to the patients’ problems. As a result, healthcare quality was improved by implementing this technology.

Outcomes and Findings

The most important finding that can be noted based on the case’s example is the vital role of careful pre-planning. Mentioned above problems could have been solved in the plan design stage. It is also essential to highlight the necessity of a diverse professional team. Professionals in different spheres such as management, IT, medicine can work together to ensure the high quality of the technology implementation. Thus, the long-term testing of the implemented technology should be held. In the case of the controlled digital changes, the lack of such testing caused disruptions in the system operation. The total costs of the EMR implementation are paid off in a short amount of time due to the increased quality of the provided services and fewer medication errors rates. Moreover, the staff workload is also decreased, which leads to the minimization of the costs.

The Assessment of the Case

The recent experience of implementation of the EMR systems showed many essential components of strategic planning. The most prominent point of success is the leaders’ team. The ideology proposed, and the support from leaders contributed to the more efficient implementation of the new technology. Additionally, it is essential to highlight the necessity of changing the organization’s focus to the more technology-oriented one. Therefore, the subsequent planning of new technologies elaboration and the maintenance of the existing should be implemented. The positive point of the analyzed case is the practical training program which was introduced without harming the scheduling of the staff. The drawback of the strategy is the lack of diversity in the management team. The specialists from all the spheres involved in the changes should propose approaches to efficient digitalization. The analysis recommends enhancing the collaboration between the workers and management teams as an essential aspect of strategic planning.

SWOT Analysis

Strategic planning and strategic management technique (SWOT) are helpful to access the quality and outcomes of the performed activity or executed project. It includes four essential aspects: the strength, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of the projects (Abedi et al., 2018). The analysis of the current case will be presented in the table below. The percentage ratio between the strengths and weaknesses of the case will be depicted in Diagram 1 based on the analysis.

Table 1: SWOT analysis of the Current Strategy Plan

Strengths	Weaknesses	Opportunities	Threats
Innovative focus of healthcare lower costs; increased communication within the workers through leadership strategy; lower rates of medication errors; efficient training programs; increasing of patients safety through the personal data protection systems.	The lack of strategic planning at the pre-planning step, the absence of staff after-training support, the IT-sphere drawbacks; more expensive maintenance of the technological supply.	Based on the EMR innovation implementation, new market opportunities, the general technological awareness of staff increased.	Government regulations of the technology; the future system disruptions and decreased efficiency; the leakage of patients’ personal information; the competitors’ further advancement.

Diagram 1: Percentage Ratio Between the Strengths and Weaknesses of the Project

Conclusion

Therefore, assessing the case of EMR implementation in the Mefferson Central Hospital allowed making the essential for the healthcare system development conclusions. The first one is the necessity of choosing the proper leaderships strategy. The second is the careful selection of the IT and managerial team, including the structured pre-planning with the diverse professionals’ points of view. Staff training and subsequent support is the third essential point that can contribute to the better performance of the whole organization.

References

Abedi, G., Abedini, E., Chaleshtary, A., Kontai, A., Marvi, A., & Mazidi, S. (2018). SWOT analysis of health reform plan on healthcare sector from the stakeholder perspective. Mazandaran University Med Science, 28(166), 199–212. Web.

Barry, B., Braunstein, M., Edirippulige, S., Fatehi, F., Kalhor, F., Samadbeik, M., & Saremian, M. (2020). Education and training on electronic medical records (EMRs) for health care professionals and students: A scoping review. International Journal of Medical Informatics, 142, 1–10. Web.

Beck, C., Cunningham, C., Hennessy, D., Jiang, J., Lorenzetti, D., Lucyk, K, & Quan, H. (2018). Strategies for improving physician documentation in the emergency department: A systematic review. BMC Emergency Medicine, 18(36), 1–12. Web.

Eastman, D., Garets, D., & McCarthy, C. (2021). Change management strategies for an effective EMR implementation. New York, NY: HIMSS Publishing. Web.

Geale, S., Mollart, L., Noble, D., Newell, R., Norton, C., & O’Brien, A. (2020). Introduction of patient electronic medical records (EMR) into undergraduate nursing education: An integrated literature review. Nurse Education Today, 94, 1–36. Web.

Scott, I., Staib, A., & Sullivan, C. (2018). Going digital: A checklist in preparing for hospital-wide electronic medical record implementation and digital transformation. Australian Health Review, 43(3), 302–313. Web.

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