Expert Panel Discussion on The Road to CPOE

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Edward Koschka

It's important to involve physicians early and often. Organizations need a mix of early adopters and naysayers to get all issues out on the table. Use of Zynx is crucial, as is a large support team that is onsite 24/7 during implementation and available via phone after implementation.

Lee Carmen

We failed to convince physicians early in the project exactly how dramatic a change CPOE was going to be to their practice. Many felt the implementation would simply be a better documentation tool. We also initially, and in some cases still are, focusing our workflow discussions too narrowly. For example, we initially looked at clinical workflow in the operating room. But we really needed to think about the entire process, starting with the initial patient encounter in clinic, through pre-op, operative procedure, post-op, ICU and general care, and then follow-up in clinic. We also spent time developing reports early in the project before we fully understand the EMR/CPOE data dictionary. As a result, after a year of using the tool, we now understand the initial requested reports didn't ultimately meet the needs of the end users.