Barriers to EHR Implementation: Fact and Fun

Over at the Life as a Healthcare CIO blog, John D. Halamka MD captured a list of top barriers to electronic health record (EHR) implementations, then added on with another ‘Top 10’ that puts a little fun into the serious business of EHRs. Below are barriers that stood out to me from a data security and healthcare access management perspective, and I urge you to check out John’s blog for more specifics – definitely worth the read and a great source of information.

Key Barriers to deploying EHR worth noting:

#10. Usability – products are hard to use and not well-engineered for clinical workflow

#8. Fear of lost productivity – clinicians are concerned they will lose 25% of their productivity for 3 months after implementations. Administrators are worried that the clinicians are right.

#5. Privacy – there is significant local variation in privacy policy and consent management strategies.

And my favorite tongue-in-cheek barriers John highlighted in his post:

#4. You read about your security breaches in the New York Times

#3. Patients get to go home early because clinicians are busy implementing software

Click over to John’s post for the full lists, and the #1 reasons that are both worth the quick read!

-David