Clinician's Corner

Welcome to Clinician’s Corner. In this area, Vision clinicians want to share experiences and lessons learned when planning, acquiring, implementing and supporting clinical IT projects and systems.

We welcome your input and suggestions. Please contact us at clincorner@visionconsulting-llc.com.

Successfully engaging clinicians

Over the years we are frequently asked, “How do we engage our clinicians in an IT deployment?” This is a common question and it is relevant to not only the implementation of an Electronic Medical Record (EMR), but also to Physician’s Access Clinical System (PACS) system, a portal, or other information system. Our experience is that regardless of the system, the themes are consistent.

When a clinical IT project is in its early planning stages, seeking appropriate clinician involvement is critical to long-term adoption success and to avoid making errors early in the process. And remember, involvement means input.

Usually, engaging the clinicians implies an initial kick-off or planning meeting. This session, it is important establish goals, review and discuss the clinical or business problems you’re hoping to address with the new system, key project constraints, and an implementation timeline. At Vision, we have found that all of these elements are vital to clinician engagement; however, at times, some of the elements are not shared with the clinician, and this quickly leads to distrust and poor clinician unity that can ruin the project. At the same time, we have learned that clinicians are highly capable of processing information and when they are informed and feel engaged in the project, they are able to come to reasonable conclusions and meet all of the company’s expectations.

It is also important to remember that a clinician’s most valuable resource is their time and when a clinician is engaged, their time needs to be highly valued and respected. Meetings need to have a clear purpose and objective. Additionally, take advantage of modern forms of communication and leverage email and/or conference calls when it is possible.