December - 20198In My OpinionTHE STORY OF OUR EHR MODERNIZATIONRich Temple, VP & CIO, Deborah Heart & Lung CenterByElectronic health records (EHRs) have been in place in medical facilities for a number of years and are widely used by physicians and all other stakeholders to work efficiently. Deborah Heart and Lung Center is no exception. In 2017, we made a decision to replace our legacy EHR and the first challengefor us was to bring everybody on-board with why we wanted to do this and what we needed from them to make the new system a success. We adopted the MEDITECH platform, and while implementing the system, we had to ensure that it streamlined the processes for physicians and all other employees at the hospital. What this system also enabled was to bring the inpatient and ambulatory services on to the same platform while providing added support to physicians in being compliant with new regulations and quality reporting. Compliance with these requirements was powered by business intelligence and analytics tools that provided that extra visibility into their data, alongside offering quality metrics. The EHR implementation, although from the same vendor as before, was more like a full system replacement, with a brand new systemthat was relevant, current, and provided more cutting-edge tools than the old system. It was a journey indeed, but a fruitful one, in which we involved the physicians out of the gate. They played a significant role in evaluating various systems and selecting the right one. We also formulated the project governance structure with a focus on keeping the physicians in the loop, creating a committee called PAC (Physicians Advisory Committee) to analyze and deliberate the issues and processes pertinent to the system. What this further assured is that it kept everyone engaged and accountable while taking into consideration the physicians' concerns and addressing them effectively. We also provided a robust training program for physicians, which gave them an extra `oomph' of support while navigating through the system. In addition to the assistance and expertise from the team of physicians, we also made extensive use of two major consulting firms who offered project management and subject matter expertise on the clinical, financial, andrevenue cycle aspects of the project. Using consulting services made the go-live much easier as it allowed physicians and other staff members to be a part of the implementation Rich Temple
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