Avoiding EHR Backlash With Tips From Healthcare CIOs

For those opposed to EHR adoption and meaningful use in particular, EHR backlash stories and hashtags must give them a sort of pleasure akin to schadenfreude, further fueling their belief that their opposition is justified. However, a closer look at these instances of EHR backlash generally reveals one or more failures on the part of healthcare organizations or providers to approach the task of adopting various EHR systems and functionalities.

What emerges from interactions and interviews with CIOs, CMIOs, and other health information managers who have overseen successful implementations of EHR systems are lessons capable of helping others nip EHR backlash in the bud. Here is a series of tips for avoiding EHR backlash.

Communicate with the entire organization, especially the clinical staff: People tend to fear what they don’t know. Why shouldn’t clinicians be any different?