Creating a Climate for Change Introduction of a New Hospital Electronic Medical Record

Over the last several months, our small community hospital in California has been developing a new electronic medical record (EMR) system to meet the requirements of meaningful-use regulations by government agencies for all hospitals across the United States. EMRs are expected to improve quality in many areas, especially to improve outcomes, while safely reducing costs.1 Adoption of EMRs is not optional, if facilities want to avoid federal penalties and continue operating. As a result, EMRs have been implemented in numerous healthcare facilities in the last decade. However, this does not guarantee acceptance. Healthcare workers, and nurses in particular, need to buy in to the new technology to improve compliance and employee satisfaction. Creating a plan that is theoretically sound can improve our overall acceptance and offer structure for other institutional implementations, not only of new computer systems, but of any kind of innovation that may evolve with the ongoing revolution of healthcare.