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Avert a Mutiny

Written by: Peter Polack

Article Overview: Some people resist change. When changing your practice over to an electronic medical records system, it is wise to act proactively to prevent a mutinous situation among staff.

Avert a Mutiny

It's rare to face a task as large as electronic medical records implementation at your practice; that is, unless you're truly unlucky and must deal with a malpractice lawsuit or dismiss a doctor from your organization. In financial terms, the cost and time are truly significant. According to numerous sources, the rate of failure can be around 30 to 50 percent. Studies show that IT implementation projects also have a high rate of failure across a spectrum of industries. Why would the healthcare field be different? Now we're talking about your practice, or my practice. Your money; mine, too. We cannot simply cut our losses from a project failure as easy as a bigger corporation can. As I've pointed out several times, the 'people-factor' is the most prevalent cause of failure, yet remains the most neglected aspect of an electronic medical records (EMR) equation.

So it wasn't an altogether jolt to uncover rumors that some doctors were seeking a vote on the motion to 'pull the plug' on the EMR implementation project. Before I explain what happened, first here are several suggestions for the prevention of this sort of situation:

Keep Communication Lines Open:

If there's one main point that EMR project 'champions' can be faulted by, it is when they take the assumption that no comment from key players means consent to the plan. This, along with a decrease in the frequency of normal board meetings meant that some major issues had not been heard or addressed yet.

Prevent Passive-aggresivity from Becoming Aggressivity:

Changes create stress for people. Believe me, implementing an EMR system at your practice will produce some stress. People handle stress in a variety of ways - some psychologically shut down. When noticing that someone is bowing out and not participating in discussions or training, it can be the earliest signs of a problem. It's preferable to address the issue right away, before it grows into obstructive behavior. For example, it could lead to the spread of doubt among other staff, or a flagrant violation of network policy.

Get Sign-Off from the Proper Leadership:

Differences of opinion should be left within the board room or other relevant forum. The doctors shouldn't voice dissent to their employees, as this can be a detrimental undermining of the company values. An oral agreement should be reached, so all complaints and issues can be brought to the board meetings and tackled as partners. EMR implementation can be so stressful to employees in itself that the added confusion of believing the owners are not in agreement, it becomes even more difficult to assist with the transition.

The vote didn't actually occur. Some legitimate concerns reached the floor and were addressed: that most referred miscommunication, this did not come as a surprise. Not all problems are always completely resolved, but at least everyone can agree to disagree and come to a united front which then spreads throughout the entire organization.

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Article Tags: aggresivity, assumption, board meetings, communication lines, doctors, electronic medical records, emr system, healthcare field, implementation project, implementation projects, losses, malpractice lawsuit, prevalent cause, prevention, project champions, project failure, several times, signs, spectrum, stress



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