Over the past several years, hospitals, physicians and other providers have been spending billions of dollars nationally to install electronic medical records and other information technologies.

The EMRs, which also can be shared online through secure networks, help to reduce duplication of services, improve quality, lower readmission rates and improve chronic care delivery.

Even though there are those that are hesitant to adobt the EHR fully, there are some hospitals and organizations that are excited about the change. Flagler Hospital understood the challenges and embraced them fully. The efforts they made to show the excitment and spread it across their organization were to get everyone invovlved in the announcement and the process.

In order to facilitate this transition, Flagler Hospital created a solid vision for the project.  CIO of Flagler Hospital Bill Rieger’s goal for the project was to move “beyond using our EMR to leveraging our EMR.”  Together with the CMIO (Chief Medical Information Officer) they created the following guiding principles for the project: “Such a system would improve quality, reduce the cost of healthcare, foster loyalty, and enhance our service to the community.”  Then, Bill stood back while the CMIO was out in front of the physicians to explain why the hospital needed to make the EMR transition.

After building a clear vision they worked to get buy in from their organization.  This included creating a “Patient Centered Care Team” which included a nurse leader, Subject Matter Experts & Super Users, PIT Crew, and the CMIO.  They also held a Project Naming Contest, a Project Kickoff Event, and created a Project Portal.  As Bill Rieger explained, “There’s power in ceremony.  People don’t forget.  They talk about them and relive them.”

One of the most powerful things they did was film a YouTube video to kick off the EMR project.  You can see it embedded below.