Application of transition-phase management model for an electronic health record system implementation: A case study

The implementation of an electronic health record (EHR) system requires changes in processes, which in turn requires management of the transition phase to EHR systems. EHR system implementations are composed of various subsystems that manage medical, clerical, administrative, and billing data. The complexity of an EHR implementation in each of these subsystems is affected by current organizational capabilities, the number of places it is deployed, and whether the deployments will be in series or in parallel, among other factors. This begs the question of how to determine the objective function and related strategy to conduct an EHR implementation. In this article, an evaluation of the previously-proposed transitionphase management model is presented through three different EHR process change case studies. Analysis of the adequacy and accuracy of the model is provided, and guidelines for interpretation and implementation are suggested.