An electronic patient record project in the United Kingdom: can it succeed?

The Department of Health in the United Kingdom has set up a three-year research and development project to develop an electronic patient record (EPR). It will be working with clinicians, managers, vendors, and possibly academic informaticians to build two working demonstrators in acute hospitals. Because so many similar projects have failed to meet expectations, a study was commissioned from the Open University in the UK to use the Systems Failures Method, which had been developed in the University to identify factors critical to the successful implementation of an electronic patient record system in acute hospitals. This paper outlines the Electronic Patient Record Project and summarizes the study and its findings.