Create a slide presentation (12-15 slides; 20 minutes long) for a HIM team of a health care organization that is considering upgrading its existing EHR or implementing a new one. Address in the presentation: SDLC, migration plans, and best practices for successful EHR implementations.Take a minute to think about this scenario:The hospital where you work spent more than $1 million dollars designing and developing an EHR system. However, hospital leadership decided not to train employees on the new system. Why? They were operating under the assumption that in our technology-oriented society, everyone knows how to use computers. Right? The first day the system went live, everyone relied on paper records. No one documented anything in the brand new, $1 million EHR system.What went wrong?HIM professionals can help their organizations find solutions to critical, expensive problems like these. Knowledge of the systems development life cycle (SDLC) and skills in using this cycle can help to answer these questions. Remember that the EHR is a system. And like other information systems, it follows the six stages of the SDLC. These are:
Identify need.
Specify requirements.
Design or acquire.
Develop or Implement.
Maintain.
Monitor results.
In particular, HIM professionals’ focus on the SDLC’s design, implementation, and maintenance phases and how those phases interact can add tremendous value to a successful EHR implementation. For example, in the design phase, HIM professionals skilled in using different tools within the EHR for workflow and process mapping can help to ensure that the business processes are organized in a way that produces the organization’s desired results each and every time.Likewise, knowledgeable HIM professionals can offer value in the SDLC’s implementation phase by citing credible, authoritative evidence to show their organizations that successful EHR implementations expend resources on end user training. The people using the system need to learn how to use the system so it can help them do their jobs more effectively and efficiently. After all, whether or not an EHR implementation is successful depends on whether the people using the system want to make it work and know how to make it work.In addition, HIM professionals can help their organizations understand the importance of regular, ongoing maintenance of its EHR system. Just as regular, ongoing maintenance of a house can prevent costly repairs and a depreciation of value, the same holds true for an EHR system.In this assessment, you will have the opportunity to educate fellow HIM team members about the SDLC and its application to EHR implementation as Vila Health considers an important strategic initiative. Should it keep and upgrade its existing EHR system, EHR Go? Or would it be better served by replacing the existing system with a new one?
DEMONSTRATION OF PROFICIENCY
By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the course competencies through the following assessment scoring guide criteria:
Competency 2: Evaluate the strategies for EHR design and implementation in the SDLC.
Describe the SDLC stages.
Explain the requirements for a successful EHR implementation.
Evaluate a migration plan for an EHR implementation.
Evaluate workflow and needs assessment in relation to EHR implementation.