For those who remember the television show M.A.S.H., this brief bit of dialogue was from Henry Blake to Hawkeye after one of Hawkeye’s patients died.
“There’s two rules about war. Rule 1–in war young men die. Rule 2–doctors can’t change Rule 1.”
There’s a similar way to apply that logic when it comes to EHR, HIT, and new IT systems.
Rule 1. If doctors don’t use them, the systems will die.
Rule 2. Simply having an EHR doesn’t change Rule 1.
A survey by Nuance Communications shows that 90% of doctors are concerned about the usability of EHR. Those results underscore the importance of process and changemanagement and training.
As I wrote previously, it’s not about the EHR, it’s about what you can do with it.
My person struggle with usability–We have a piano in our home even though nobody plays it. For some reason I’m not permitted to understand, we pay to have it tuned twice a year.
Pale Rhino Consulting 
Hi,
Alot of truth in the above statement. A physician champion is key to the implementation. Also having a good physician leadership towards the effort. What are some key signs of physician apathy for an EMR implementation?
Looking forward to hearing your response,
Elyse
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For starters, there’s the churn, which granted is several degrees stronger than apathy. I think however that the apathy may be a disguise for a lack of expertise about how to get from interested to implemented. We are in the process of developing a “wrap-around” solution for that very reason.
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