Solve the puzzle of electronic health record implementation budgeting

Health care organizations need to adopt an electronic health record (EHR) system for compliance with the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act. How to budget the EHR implementation is a challenging issue to the chief financial officers in health care organizations. This article uses a mock hospital to illustrate how to prepare an EHR implementation budget step by step in a hospital setting. After the project budget baseline is set, the budgeting steps are as follows: (1) estimating the cost for each project element, (2) aggregating all costs, and (3) revising budget to meet the budget baseline. Several budgeting techniques are discussed, including analogue, parametric, and unit cost based on effort. The budgeting methodology can also be applied to a physician/clinic EHR implementation budget.