Integrating the software into a healthcare organization’s workflow is known as EMR implementation. Selecting and preparing the EHR software, ensuring privacy and security, training the support team, and resolving any issues that arise are all stages of this process. Taking the time to strategically implement EMR helps with the transition and benefits the practice, patients, and staff (Burton-Jones & Volkoff, 2017). Some employers are concerned about the costs and time required to implement the EHR process, but they are important to improve patient care and efficiency. EMR is designed to improve the quality of care, patient outcomes, and safety as well as communication between the patient and the healthcare provider. The time taken to generate an EMR depends on several factors, including the complexity of the system, the size of the company or process, and the location of the service.
My supervisor making the cognitive and managerial choice of implementing electric health records had a great impact on the patients’ health. EHR and the ability to communicate health information electronically help deliver patients better care and deliver greater business value (Rathert et al., 2019). EHR helps healthcare professionals better manage patient care and provide better care by providing accurate, complete and up-to-date patient information at point of care. It also oversees the distribution of electronic information to patients and other clinics so that providers can diagnose patients more accurately (Burton-Jones & Volkoff, 2017). This system works well compared to paper filling which cannot keep information for a long period thus it’s not reliable. This paper will discuss the steps of implementation of an electric health records system using the institutional theory of healthcare management and the application of the institutional theory of organization to healthcare organizations.
The institutional theory examines how organizations and management practices are shaped by social rather than economic forces (Hossain, Quaresma & Rahman, 2019). Its ability to explain organizational behavior contrary to economic rationality has made it a universal view in management theory. It has been used to explain why some management innovations are either embraced by or diffused throughout the organization, even though they cannot improve the effectiveness of the organization. This interpretation is based on the basic concept that, according to institutional theory, many organizational activities depend on social pressures for compliance and legitimacy rather than technological pressures on economic performance.
Steps of Implementation for an Electronic Health Records System
Personal Planning for Implementation of EMR road map
The first step in building an EHR system is to create a checklist (Rathert et al., 2019). Stakeholder recruitment, budgeting, planning implementation, data transfer, training, and live testing, live activity, and generating success indicators are all important roles. For roadmap design, joint project management techniques such as Google Sheets and Trello are very useful.
Defining the Budget
The cost of running an EMR depends on the strength of the software and the size of the business. Cost is affected by hardware and network upgrades, vendor training and auditing fees, data support and maintenance, as well as per-user cost. The initial productivity reduction resulting from EMR acceptance should also be considered (Hossain, Quaresma & Rahman, 2019). Providers and staff need dedicated training time that can be reduced from patient care time, as well as extra time adapting to the new system. However, once the technology is fully integrated, business processes become simpler and overall productivity improves.
Configuring the EMR Systems
The EHR is connected to the Practice Management System (PM) during the system configuration phase. During this stage, all data stored on the old system is transferred to the new system (Rathert et al., 2019). The procedure for importing data from the old system to the new system is an essential part of putting together a complete PM and EHR system. Patients are not automatically transferred from one system to another when a new software system is implemented. This is a complex procedure that requires the help of specialized technicians.
Enrollment and credentialing
Streamlining individual processes before installing EMR, increase the chances of a successful rollout and reduce the inefficiencies of using EMR (Burton-Jones & Volkoff, 2017). Offering training for the team members. Training is tailored to the practice’s unique workflow, as well as the various responsibilities of staff members and their preferred methods of interacting with the new system. Staff members may be brought up to speed on a variety of methods, but the goal is to start training as soon as possible before the new EHR goes live so that they remember as much information as possible.
Application of Institutional Theory of Organization to Healthcare Organizations
This theory is applied to a variety of medical settings. One of the most important contributions to the healthcare sector is to provide a framework that healthcare organizations can use to explain why and how to innovate (Hossain, Quaresma & Rahman, 2019). Most innovation research has focused on the characteristics of individuals, especially those who are the first to adopt new technology. Introducing innovation at the company level is a much more complex process (Rathert et al., 2019). Institutional theory is widely applicable in healthcare institutions, for example, the implementation of comprehensive quality control and HIV infection prevention by substance abuse treatment centers.
Another contribution to healthcare theory is helping in explaining the complexity of the environment (such as technical and institutional settings) operated by some medical institutions such as hospitals (Burton-Jones & Volkoff, 2017). From this perspective, organizational theory helps explain the difficult corporate and technological environment that healthcare institutions face. This affects how the staffing process is implemented. When new medical inventions are submitted to medical institutions, organizations develop strategies to ensure that innovation is maximized. The adoption of computerized medical records is a good example. With the adoption of EMRs, a healthcare institution is forced to transition from manual to electronic record processing.
References
Burton-Jones, A., & Volkoff, O. (2017). How can we develop contextualized theories of effective use? A demonstration in the context of community-care electronic health records. Information Systems Research, 28(3), 468-489.
Hossain, A., Quaresma, R., & Rahman, H. (2019). Investigating factors influencing the physicians’ adoption of electronic health record (EHR) in the healthcare system of Bangladesh: An empirical study. International Journal of Information Management, 44, 76-87.
Rathert, C., Porter, T. H., Mittler, J. N., & Fleig-Palmer, M. (2019). Seven years after Meaningful Use: Physicians’ and nurses’ experiences with electronic health records. Health care management review, 44(1), 30-40.
