How to Successfully Navigate Your EHR Implementation

This article identifies the three major do's and don'ts of electronic health record (EHR) system implementation and explores the application of these components.  The author characterizes these areas as "the three T's": team, tactics, and technology.  Each EHR implementation team should have a physician champion who motivates others, a skilled and collaborative project manager, broad stakeholder involvement, and specific, measurable goals.  Tactics to employ for a successful implementation include: design a balanced scanning strategy, utilize a phased implementation, lighten workloads when going "live" and for a short period afterward, and enter data into the EHR electronically as much as possible.  Having proper speed and high network availability and capability, maintaining a test environment to mirror the live environment in case of problems, utilizing expert information technology (IT) advice when it comes to servers and networks, maintaining servers, and having a disaster recovery plan in place are all technology issues to address for successful implementation.