Electronic Health Records (EHRs) continue at the center of the National debate on improving quality of care and stemming the tide of rising healthcare costs.  Providers are heavily invested in EHRs and their investments continue to rise dramatically.    However, inspite of the huge investments being made, organizations do not seek regular check ups and ’second’ opinions to ensure the EHR investment is being maximized.

Whether organizations are early in the EHR journey or have been working on it for years, many of them experience four unwelcomed, and often avoidable events:

• Projects take longer and cost much more than estimated
• Benefits are less than planned and take longer to realize
• Cost of ownership (ongoing costs such as upgrades and support) is higher than planned
• Clinicians do not readily adopt the new tools and workflows

Organizations often respond by scaling back the EHR initiative, resulting in significant benefits that are never realized or realized at an even later date.  Others believe that the EHR is a project with a start and an end, not realizing the project is just the beginning of the EHR journey.  Without a plan for the ongoing ‘care and feeding’ of their EHR, the process stagnates, and value withers away.

The truth is the initial EHR implementation is often a break-even proposition at best.  How organizations build on the EHR foundation is where the real value is achieved.  

Key to achieving the promised benefits of EHRs, is the understanding that the initial implementation is only the starting point. Organizations who are successful understand early that EHRs need to be enhanced and built upon.  Beyond the foundational project is where organizations can realize significant value and return-on-investment, making the financial, organizational, and sweat-equity worthwhile.

Perficient’s HealthyEHR Health Check can help Organizations ensure that they are on the right track to achieve their original targeted benefits and to identify new, creative ways to leverage their EHR investment to unlock new value across the enterprise.   The health check helps CEOs, CFOs, CIOs and CMIOs by providing:

• Review of EHR targeted benefits and outcomes
• Evaluation of the organization’s strategic plan and EHR roadmap for benefit achievement and alignment
• An objective 3^rd party review of key EHR risks factors:
  • Clinical adoption
  • Workflow fragmentation
  • Project governance
  • Testing methodologies
  • Business continuity planning
• Actionable recommendations to maximize the EHR investment.

EHR Health Checks are conducted by a senior team with decades of experience working with health care organizations to implement Electronic Health Records, and to help them achieve their targeted outcomes.

For more information on HealthyEHR stop by the Perficient booth 9049 at HIMSS 2010.