Creating an Effective Onboard Team for EMR Implementation

Introduction
Teamwork is an essential component in healthcare sector. The team should be motivated,
cohesive, communicative and goal oriented to get successful (Khatri & Gupta, 2016). The
Thomason Health System in Australia is one of the largest healthcare delivery units which is
aiming to implement a new ITS in the form of Electronic Health Records (EHRs). The recently
appointed CEO of the company along with the board of directors has asked to establish an
onboard team for the facilitation of an effective technology transition. The aim of this report is
the present a strategic proposal regarding the same to the board of directors of THS.
Part I: Team Creation
Onboarding Team Members and Rationale
The integrated healthcare system is one of the major solutions towards the challenges in
healthcare. The electronic health records system is having several benefits towards healthcare
services due to its unique property in enhancing patient’s care, patient’s centeredness, safety,
communication, equity, timeliness, and education. The EHRs also act as a strong source for the
healthcare providers to provide better healthcare. In addition to this, it is always encouraged to
have a healthier lifestyle within the population by appropriate nutrition, physical activities, wider
use of preventive care and avoiding risky behaviors (Garaigordobil & Martínez-Valderrey,
2015). The EHRs and its ability to share information regarding healthcare helped to facilitate
high quality care and will create a tangible enhancement for the healthcare organization (Hsu,
Wang, Chen, & Hsiao, 2016).
Using the Thomason Health System Bios, the selection of the onboard team was performed. The
team will be consisting of Virginia Pavini MD, Marco Tortello, Ph.D., Todd Ramos, RN,
Cristina Trevor MD, and Jennifer Kline. Dr. Marco is having a background of information
technology that focuses on patient-centered technologies. Because of his expertise in IT and
healthcare, it makes him ideal for the position of a thought leader in this core team. His
leadership will ensure that the onboarding team must meet the entire requirement associated with
the project. Dr. Virginia is quite experienced and has given service to THS for a long time. Her
role is to be a staff chief and has played a major role in THS success. The employee idealizes her
and always listens to her recommendations. She has the mindset to involve staffs in each process

that makes the transition process quite easier because the staff feels to be a part of the project
from the beginning. Dr. Cristina is experienced in implementing EHRs at other places and knows
the vitality of the technology. She is also experienced in streamlining the health records and
enhances the timing of doctor’s visits to the patient. The registered nurse Ramos is the
administrator of the nursing staff, and the responsibility he has is to get in touch with all the staff
at each level. Todd is highly concerned about the work involved in the EMR transition will
stretch the staff quite thinner. Jennifer is quite excited to meet the staff, and the ability to interact
with the staff throughout will provide a positive outlook on the benefits of the EHR and makes
her an excellent inclusion in the team (Kaneko, Onozuka, Shibuta, & Hagihara, 2018).
Part II: Team Building
Team STEPPS
The team STEPPS is nothing but the combination of the plans that offers tools, techniques, and
strategies that can help the professional in the healthcare field optimize and develops their
knowledge and team performance in healthcare settings. STEPPS team is derivative of five
important principles. These principles include communication, team structure, leadership, mutual
support and monitoring of situation (Team Stepps, 2014). Firstly, the level of skills of each team
member will be vital to know for the newly appointed chief operating officer. The support from
each of them will play a vital role as some of the members may be weaker in some area and may
be stronger in others. The members are also required to understand and support each other and
encourage team building. It will also discuss the care plan, staff, and availability of healthcare
providers throughout the shifts, available resources, and workload on the staffs. After the
discussion, there will be a debriefing of everything to evaluate the accomplished objectives and
decide if there was a success (Dyer, 2015).
A shared mental model will be implemented where each member of the team will be accountable
for their workload. Each member must be on the same page in terms of issues or goals that
required to be solved. It will help in maintaining a significant awareness about a member of the
team and their workload to achieve mutual support. It will also provide a safety net within the
team that will ensure the mistakes and oversights get caught easily and swiftly. The team

members will be responsible for assisting with the request as it will develop a climate of active
collaboration and mutual benefits (Rock et al., 2015).
Potential Challenges
Various challenges may come while creating an effective team for EMR implementation.
Precautions can be actively taken to avoid hardship among the team members. To alleviate such
challenges, where the member fails to achieve a similar vision, it is important to ensure the
mission and vision of EMR must be understood clearly and accepted by everyone. The roles and
responsibilities of work must be shared equally, and the balance must be achieved. If it is not
done, the workload will be not equally distributed, and they will start feeling overworked and
unappreciated. Significant issues can also be created with improper communication as it is a vital
part of the team members to work cohesively and able to express themselves in a group. Trust
issues among the peer can also be a critical part in a team as it may lead to giving a feeling of
unconfident on other’s abilities, communication, and work ethics. Therefore, it becomes very
important to understand the weakness and strength of each other and provide support and
encouragement whenever required (Kaneko, Onozuka, Shibuta, & Hagihara, 2018).
Techniques to Resolve Conflicts
There are five techniques that are very important to negotiate, identify and resolving the
conflicts among the team members. These techniques are hitting the conflict head-on, defining
the acceptable behavior, viewing conflicts as opportunities and the factor of importance.
Developing a framework that will help in decision making will be the key aspect of defining
acceptable behavior. Defining the position clearly will help people to know that has been
expected from each of them (Hsu, Wang, Chen, & Hsiao, 2016). When some conflicts are
inevitable, the team members must be responsible for solving the issues as soon as the seed of
conflict is sown. Intervening in the conflict proactively will help in preventing the issue from
arising. Knowing when to pick your battles is essential for any organization. It helps with time
management and with learning whether the battle or conflict is worth the time required to resolve
it. Moreover, viewing conflict as an opportunity is a great teaching experience. It helps with