On Champions

During the planning and implementation phases, I highly recommend identifying and incorporating role specific user champions to help facilitate the changes taking place in the organization.

Being involved during the planning stages allows these users to contribute their knowledge of current state workflows so that future state (post-implementation) workflows are as reflective as possible of clinic practices. Having role specific champions (MD, RN at least) allows the real world experience of those users to be included in design and integration of the system. These users will also get some sense of system limitations that may confound some users and be able to address those as colleagues sharing an experience, helping the new user feel more comfortable during the implementation/go-live phase.

Ideally the champion will be a well-respected person who is able to address operational issues, smooth ruffled feathers and communicate with the project leadership and/or the technical team in ways that an end user might not be able to. This person should also be a real advocate for the changes being implemented; when people are already nervous about making a change they need a display of confidence not wishy-washy attitudes.

As important as this role is for successful implementations, I have been involved in several that did not identify physician champions and relied on super users to fill in for other roles (RN, MA, etc.). The champion role differs from that of super user in that the focus is on support of change management rather than technical support. Super users are often offered additional functionality training but have little sense of the decision-making that went into how the system is being implemented in their specific practice/clinic/hospital.

I understand that clinicians are very busy people and sitting in an EMR planning meeting or being on the floor during go-live may not seem like a priority. I have found that the more participation and input there is in the planning stages then the less frustration there is when it's time to actually utilize the system. It won't likely be painless, but there will be less pain.

Clinician champions bring role specific knowledge and experience to bear on a system that will impact their day-to-day worklife and patient care. Utilize them for increased efficiency and decreased frustration.