The advent of the 21st century has initiated a digital boom for every industry, including the healthcare industry. Gone are the days when huge bulky folders were used to store, manage and retrieve patient information. One of the remarkable innovations in this regard is the Electronic Health Record system (EHR). However, despite this important innovation EHR system faces several implementation challenges. In this post, we are going to talk about some changes, so let’s get right into it.
However, before we step into challenges, let us learn about the
Table of Contents
Importance of EHR
Electronic health record commonly referred as EHR in the healthcare industry refers to storing of a patient’s information in a digital format. These records can be accessed anytime by authorized users and help to improve the workflow in clinics. The entire healthcare team has access to the medical history of a patient, including their earlier treatments, diagnosis details, lab test results etc. This is of immense significance as the entire history of a patient can be accessed with the help of one click. This leads to better health outcomes as well as build higher patient engagement and facilitates cooperation.
Challenges regarding EHR Implementation
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Costly Implementation: One of the significant challenges for the EHR systems is the excessive costs associated with its implementation, which includes hardware, software, maintenance, training to staff, etc. These costs come to a huge figure which is not feasible for smaller establishments.
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Time-Consuming Training: Before you deploy the EHR system, the staff needs to be trained regarding it. For this, the medical team and physicians need to put in a more significant amount of time which can be a hassle. Hence most organizations feel that such efforts are unnecessary.
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Data Privacy: Data Privacy concerns is one of the major challenges in EHR implementation as stakeholders are concerned regarding data leakage. Suppose if there is a data breach, it can turn into a huge legal dispute costing huge losses to the company.
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Transferring Data: Still today, most healthcare institutions work with paper base documentation, and the order to export the entire paper-based documentation to digital records is a nightmare for the staff. Hence this becomes an important challenge in EHR implementation.
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Lack of Technical Expertise: A major challenge for the implementation of EHR systems is the lack of technical expertise. Most organizations do not have an in-house technical team which can be the reason for the delay in the EHR implementation process.
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Lack of Interoperability: In EHR systems, the major challenge is the lack of proper interoperability, which allows for the seamless transfer of information among various providers.
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Resistance of the Staff: In a healthcare establishment, many employees can be resistant to the idea of technological infusion and may not trust the process. This is also a significant challenge in the EHR implementation process, as resistance from the staff can cause a delay in the implementation of the system.
Summing Up
These were some of the challenges regarding EHR implementation; however, an establishment can gather critical patient data through HIPAA compliant texting tools so as to overcome the difficulties faced regarding the implementation of EHR.
