Implementing EHR Systems in Healthcare: Team and Strategy
This paper examines the strategic implementation of electronic health records (EHR) in a healthcare startup setting. It outlines the roles of key team members — including the lead physician, project manager, and lead super user — and explains how clear goals derived from situational analysis drive successful adoption. The paper also addresses best practices for team empowerment, effective meeting facilitation, and performance coaching as tools for sustaining EHR implementation. Drawing on healthcare IT literature and organizational behavior principles, the paper argues that technological success depends as much on team leadership and culture as on the software itself.
- Introduction to Healthcare IT and EHR: Overview of EHR, mHealth, and telehealth in healthcare
- Team Members and Their Roles: Key roles: lead physician, project manager, super user
- Setting Goals and Empowering the Team: Goal-setting, delegation, and team empowerment strategies
- Conducting Effective Team Meetings: Agenda design, ground rules, and collaborative facilitation
- Team Performance and Coaching During Implementation: Coaching components, performance improvement, and employee development
- Conclusion: Summary of EHR success as a leadership and culture challenge
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What makes this paper effective
- Combines technical subject matter (EHR systems) with organizational leadership theory, showing how both dimensions are necessary for successful implementation.
- Uses a clear, sequential structure — from system rationale, to team formation, to goal-setting, to meetings, to coaching — that mirrors a real project lifecycle.
- Grounds practical recommendations in cited sources, including WHO guidelines and peer-reviewed nursing literature, lending credibility to operational suggestions.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates applied synthesis: it integrates healthcare IT concepts with human resource management principles, showing how leadership strategies such as delegation, empowerment, and coaching directly support a technology rollout. This cross-disciplinary approach strengthens the argument that EHR success is an organizational, not merely a technical, challenge.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens with a conceptual overview of health IT, then moves through five operational sections: team composition, goal-setting and empowerment, meeting facilitation, and performance coaching. Each section builds on the last, creating a cohesive implementation roadmap. The coaching section is the most developed, reflecting the paper's emphasis on sustained human performance over one-time system deployment.
Introduction to Healthcare IT and EHR
The healthcare industry has widely adopted IT solutions in the development and maintenance of information systems for this sector. These information system applications will go a long way in boosting medical care goals by reducing costs significantly, increasing efficiency, and achieving near-zero error rates — all of which contribute to greater client satisfaction. At the core of this transformation is the electronic health record (EHR), which represents all the health information of an individual stored in a database that can be shared across healthcare service providers (Rouse, 2016).
Also integral to this system are two additional components: mobile health (mHealth) and telehealth (telemedicine). Though the two are interconnected, they differ in scope. Telehealth includes home monitoring of health conditions through desktops, laptops, and other online platforms (Terry, 2016), while mobile health is restricted to mobile devices.
Considering the impact of EHR, it is the best starting point for digitalizing healthcare in a startup setting. The key motivators for EHR implementation in a medical startup are: greater efficiency in the delivery of health services, enhanced safety for both clients and service providers, and improved affordability of healthcare services. With these goals achieved, there will be increased accessibility to healthcare overall. Accurate information is essential to good medical care — without it, proper diagnosis and sound clinical decisions are not possible. Healthcare workers must therefore be empowered with the correct tools to help them care for patients, record and transfer information, and meet the regulatory requirements of accrediting organizations (Odekunle, 2016).
Team Members and Their Roles
The implementation team will comprise physicians, nurses, physician assistants, records management staff, administrative officers, and other auxiliary staff. The clinical team is responsible both for educating their peers on EHR implementation and for providing ongoing feedback to the team charged with the implementation process.
Three key roles are central to a successful rollout. First is the lead physician, who oversees execution and bridges the backend and front-end of the implementing team. This person should be actively engaged in clinical practice. Second is the project manager, who connects the EHR supplier with the implementing team, tracks milestones, monitors progress, and addresses day-to-day issues as they arise. Third is the lead super user, who customizes the EHR software to the organization's specific needs and creates workflows and standard operating procedures (SOPs) to address issues raised by front-line users (Hodgkins, n.d.).
References
Chartered Management Institute. (n.d.). Coaching for improved performance. Retrieved March 31, 2018, from http://www.managers.org.uk/knowledge-bank/coaching-for-improved-performance
Ginsberg, D. (2011). Successful preparation and implementation of an electronic health records system. Best practices: A guide for improving the efficiency and quality of your practice.
Heathfield, S. M. (2017). Know the top 10 principles of employee empowerment. Retrieved March 31, 2018, from https://www.thebalance.com/top-principles-of-employee-empowerment-1918658
Heathfield, S. M. (2018). 6 steps to help you coach employees effectively. Retrieved March 31, 2018, from https://www.thebalance.com/use-coaching-to-improve-employee-performance-1918083
Hodgkins, M. (n.d.). Electronic health record (EHR) implementation — STEPS Forward. Retrieved March 30, 2018, from https://www.stepsforward.org/modules/ehr-implementation
Narayanasamy, A., & Penney, V. (2014). Coaching to promote professional development in nursing practice. British Journal of Nursing, 23(11), 568–573.
Odekunle, F. (2016). Current roles and applications of electronic health record in the healthcare system. Health Sciences, 5(12), 48–51.
Rouse, M. (2016). What is health IT (health information technology)? Retrieved March 30, 2018, from http://searchhealthit.techtarget.com/definition/Health-IT-information-technology
Sinsky, C. (n.d.). Conducting effective team meetings — STEPS Forward. Retrieved March 31, 2018, from https://www.stepsforward.org/modules/conducting-effective-team-meetings
Terry, K. (2016, January 11). Health IT glossary. Retrieved March 30, 2018, from https://www.cio.com/article/2985044/healthcare/health-it-glossary.html
WHO. (2017). Handbook for electronic health records implementation. Retrieved March 30, 2018, from
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