Lessons learned from a comprehensive electronic patient record procurement process-implications for healthcare...

Area of Science:

• Health Informatics
• Information Systems Management
• Healthcare Administration

Background:

• Describes the procurement process for a comprehensive electronic patient record (EPR), also known as an electronic health record (EHR), system.
• Focuses on a specialist clinical academic institution setting.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify key lessons learned from the EPR/EHR system procurement process.
• To provide insights for optimizing future healthcare IT procurement.

Main Methods:

• Conducted a retrospective review of the procurement process.
• Performed an evaluation of relevant peer-reviewed literature.

Main Results:

• Emphasizes the critical role of detailed organizational requirements and readiness in procurement.
• Highlights staff involvement and ownership as key to successful system selection.
• Notes that while scoring was resource-intensive, demonstrations and site visits were more effective for evaluating supplier capabilities.

Conclusions:

• Procurement processes must be customized to align with an organization's clinical activities, digital maturity, infrastructure, and budget.
• General principles should be adapted to specific institutional contexts for successful EPR/EHR implementation.