Electronic Health Record (EHR) Stakeholders Analysis

This report examines the stakeholders involved in the implementation of Electronic Health Records (EHR) projects. It identifies and analyzes the roles of various stakeholders, including hospital management, health policy makers, health practitioners, clients and patients, office staff, the EHR project team, accounting officers, EHR developers, and the community. The report highlights the importance of each stakeholder's contribution to the successful implementation and operation of EHR systems. The hospital management team finances and oversees the project, while policymakers design policies that promote EHR adoption. Health practitioners provide technical knowledge and input on system requirements, and clients provide crucial information for their medical records. The office staff assists with data and administrative tasks, and the EHR project team manages the project's finances, selection, and training. Accounting officers provide billing and financial data, while EHR developers design and maintain the system. Finally, the community acts as the end-user and provides feedback on the system's effectiveness. The report concludes that the engagement and coordination of these stakeholders are critical for a successful EHR implementation.

Running head: ELECTRONIC HEALTH RECORDS 1
Electronic Health Records
Student Name
Institution

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Introduction
Electronic health record system has been part of health reforms aiming at improving the
health care sector of the country. Electronic Health Records (EHR) refers to the digital version of
the patient’s medical paper chart containing treatment plans, medication, medical history,
diagnosis and other medical health records that assist in treatment and monitoring of patient’s
health. The EHR system, therefore, contains broad information about the patient that gives real-
time information necessary to ensure medication is effective. Moreover, the EHR system
contains decision support information that is important for developing a patient's medical care.
The EHR system provides a real-time workflow that is automated for effective monitoring of the
patient’s medical health. Development and implementation of an effective EHR system is an
important health care project involving a number of stakeholders. The following paper, therefore,
examines various stakeholders and the role each stakeholder plays in the implementation of
Electronic Health Record project.
Stakeholders in Electronic Health Records (EHR) project implementation
There are many stakeholders within the EHR project implementation system and each of
these stakeholders play a specific role. The stakeholder framework involves many different
stakeholders that each is engaged at a specific level of the project implementation (Cebul, Love,
Jain & Hebert, 2011). Proper coordination of these stakeholders and the role each play result in
good project implementation and success. Some of the key stakeholders within the EHR project
implementation include hospital management team, clinicians, clients, office staff, EHR project
team, accounting officer and EHR developer.

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1. Hospital management or administration
Hospital management and the health department play an important role in the adoption
and implementation of the EHR within the health care system. Firstly, the hospital management
team finances the EHR project and ensures that the project comes to success during the
implementation. Secondly, the hospital management team also evaluates the project’s success
upon implementation and this ensures the quality of services offered by the EHR system (Yao,
Zhang, Sanseau & Agarwal, 2011). Thirdly, the goodwill of the hospital management team offer
in the course implementation means success in the implementation of the project. Fourthly, the
hospital management plays an important role in the management of the project since the project
falls within its management jurisdiction. Lastly, the hospital management also offers an advisory
role in the selection of the EHR system used. This is in line with the health care organization’s
vision and mission since the record system should be part of the organization’s vision (Herwehe
et al., 2011).
2. Health policy makers
Health care policymakers are important stakeholders within the EHR project
implementation system since policymakers play a number of roles in implementation. Firstly, the
policymakers assist in the selection and adoption of the EHR system that will help improve the
health care sector in general. Moreover, it is the role of the policymakers to ensure that the
selected system improves the quality of the health care service (Thygesen, Daasnes, Thaulow &
Bronnum-Hansen, 2011). Secondly, it's the role of the policymakers to design the policies that
promote the use and implementation of the EHR system within the health sector. Thirdly, the
government being an important policy maker provides a good political environment that

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enhances the implementation of EHR within the health department. As part of the health care
policy, the system will help the policymakers to realize their objective of improving health sector
(Ohno-Machado, 2011).
3. Health practitioners
Health caregivers or practitioners are at the center of the EHR system and has many
different roles to play in the implementation. Firstly, health caregivers provide the technical
knowledge on the interaction between the system, hospital, and clients that are important for
planning and designing of the system (Fernández-Alemán et al., 2015). Secondly, during the
selection process of the EHR system health practitioners provides the knowledge on the system
requirement that will assist the hospital. These clinicians and other health caregivers provide the
input that includes designing, live support, and workflow within the system. Thirdly, health
practitioners also take part in testing of the system before the system officially commence its
operation to ascertain that their need is met within the EHR system. Lastly, health care
practitioners also take part in the implementation of the EHR system since they largely interact
with clients within the system. Health care practitioners are key users of the system that will
always form part of the project implementation (Colligan, Potts, Finn & Sinkin, 2015).
4. Clients and patients
Clients or patients are key stakeholders since they form part of the system that is used to
monitor their health records. Firstly, patients play an important role in providing true information
that is captured within the system and health of other stakeholders in the implementation of the
system. This leaves no doubt that patients are key stakeholders that will be used for the EHR

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project to commence its implementation (Porter et al., 2018). Secondly, clients take part in the
implementation of the EHR system by testing the system and this help in determining the
usability of the system before officially starting its operation. Moreover, the information that will
form part of the data stored within the EHR system is derived from patients or clients
themselves. Thirdly, patients provide their view about EHR to designers of the system that will
be easy to use for storing patient’s records. This help in maintaining the trust of clients about
their information that will be stored and maintained by health organization (Fiks et al., 2011).
5. Office staff
The office staff is employees that are employed by the health organization to store and
arrange various files and records of clients. These office staffs play a varied role in the
implementation of the EHR project. Firstly, office staff provides estimates, data and contact
information of patients that will be coming for the service (Peter, Lars, Jensen & Søren, 2012).
This is important for planning, designing and selection of the right EHR system that matches the
organization’s need. Secondly, office staffs provide the challenges that are most likely to affect
the new EHR system since the officer has the knowledge of record storage. This is possible due
to the vast knowledge that the office staff has been exposed to while maintaining office files.
Thirdly, during the implementation of the EHR system gives areas that need improvement hence
effective system. The office staff also has the information on the expected arrangement of
various resources within the system to ensure that the system is better than the manual that is
used (Milewski, Govindaraju & Bhardwaj, 2009).
6. EHR project team members

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EHR project team consists of various people that assist in spearheading the project from
planning to implementation play an important role. Firstly, the project team organizes the
finances that are needed to implement the project. This the project team does together with the
health organization management team to assist in project implementation (Kierkegaard, 2011).
Secondly, the project team members identify, select and implement the right EHR system for the
health organization. The identification or selection of the right EHR system is important to
ensure that the right project for health care service delivery. Thirdly, the project team members
promote the EHR system among staffs to ensure that various people take part in the
implementation of the project. It is the role of the project team that includes the project
coordinator and project manager to promote the activities of the project during the
implementation to ensure all departments are involved in implementation. Fourthly, project team
train or educate various users on how to use the EHR system for better medical results. Lastly,
the EHR project team reports to the management on the progress and state of the EHR project as
this ensures that the system is successful upon implementation (Habib, 2010).
7. Accounting officer
Hospital accounting officer is another important stakeholder that provides various
accounting or billing information necessary for EHR project implementation. Firstly, the
accounting officer provides the information about the current billing system and billing data that
is used in planning, selection or designing of the EHR system. Secondly, the accounting officer
will test the speed, processing ability and accuracy of the EHR system during project
implementation (Kartoun, 2018). In addition, accounting officer testing the system is necessary
to identify areas that need improvement. Thirdly, accounting officers help in the integration of

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the system with the current billing system to ensure that all information is captured in the system.
This is also important for ensuring that EHR system is effective when used together with current
health records system as a backup. Lastly, the accounting officer also plays an important role in
determining the billing system that will be used in the system during the implementation when
compared to the current manual billing system used within the hospital. Furthermore, the
accounting officer show identifies the importance of the EHR system as compared to the manual
billing system as this will help in the evaluation of the EHR system after implementation
(Goodman et al., 2010).
8. EHR developer, provider or vendor
EHR system developer or vendor is the company or individual that design or provides the
EHR system to be implemented. Firstly, the vendor design or build the system using the
information provided by the organization as the business client. Secondly, the software or system
provider offers maintenance services to the health organization that is using the EHR system.
The company or individual offers system updates and security maintenance that is important for
maintaining system integrity and confidentiality of information stored (Granja, Janssen &
Johansen, 2018). Secondly, the EHR developer provides the technical knowledge on the usability
of the system to the project team who then train users. Thirdly, the software vendor plays an
important role in improving the system in areas that are identified in the course of
implementation. This can be in terms of security, efficiency, accuracy, speed and data processing
of the system. Lastly, the EHR system provider takes part in the implementation of the system
through the supply of assets or equipment necessary for project implementation. The EHR

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provider offers the most important training during the implementation to ensure that those people
trained are also able to train others (Buntin, Burke, Hoaglin & Blumenthal, 2011).
9. The community
The community, in general, is another stakeholder that forms part of the EHR project
implementation. Firstly, the community forms the market for reaching with the EHR project and
the community has various resources that are useful for implementation of the project. Secondly,
the community through the community health system also acts as the end user that also provides
useful information for implementation. Thirdly, the community as a key stakeholder plays an
important role in providing their view on the effectiveness of the EHR project implementations.
In addition, the community also play a role in being part of evaluators being an important
institution within the health system. This the community does through offering their opinion on
usability and evaluation after implementation (Greenhalgh et al., 2010).
Conclusion
In conclusion, Electronic Health Records remain an important medical project that
requires a good stakeholder’s engagement. Some of the common stakeholders in the EHR project
implementation include hospital management team, clinicians, clients, office staff, EHR project
team, accounting officer, the community and EHR developer. Each of the stakeholders within the
EHR project has a role to play in order to reach a successful project implementation. The role of
each stakeholder cut across the implementation process from the EHR developer to end user. In
addition, the engagement of these stakeholders brings a project framework that ensures that the
project is successful.

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