In the context of implementing a new electronic health record (EHR), “change management” refers to the structured approach to transitioning health care organizations, teams, and individual users from current clinical workflows and/or legacy systems to a new platform.
It encompasses all of the people-focused strategies and activities needed to ensure successful adoption and minimize problems and pushback. Its key components include stakeholder engagement, communication strategy, training and education, workflow redesign, and resistance management. Clearly there are many benefits, but with change management comes change impact.
About change impact
Change impact refers to the degree and nature of disruption that implementation will have on stakeholders, workflows, roles, and organizational functions. It’s essentially an analysis of “what will be different” and “how significantly will it affect people and processes.”
The bottom line? Change impact assessments are the foundation for effective change management. You can’t successfully manage change without understanding specifically what’s changing and whom it affects most. Organizations that underestimate or fail to assess change impact often experience prolonged productivity losses, high resistance, staff turnover, and a failure to achieve expected benefits from their investment.
The goal isn’t to eliminate impact – that’s nearly impossible with transformational change like our Epic implementation. Rather, the objective is to understand it, prepare for it, and provide appropriate support that helps people successfully navigate it.
What is readiness?
Readiness refers to the organization’s preparedness – technically and culturally – to successfully implement and adopt an EHR system. It’s an assessment of whether the foundation is in place for a successful transition.
I like using the example of building a home. If the foundation is not in place or structurally sound, the home will have issues. We must think about this example in organizational terms; the foundation must be strong enough to support the build.
This article was written by UAB Medicine’s change management team for Epic. Click here for the latest updates on our Epic Journey.