How to Overcome Electronic Health Records Implementation Barriers

Background: The 2009 Healthcare Reform mandated healthcare providers to fully adopt and utilize Electronic Health Records (EHR) system when treating patients. Despite this mandate, the EHR adoption is hindered by the resistances and barriers. So, this study was conducted to find methods on how organizations can overcome barriers so that EHR can be fully implemented. Method: Qualitative study with 12 question interview format was conducted. Subject of the interview focuses around how clinicians were able to overcome barriers. The test subjects are Danish hospital providers and IT personnel who were directly involved with EHR implementation. This Danish hospital implemented EHR more than a decade ago and is still using EHR. A comparative analysis is done to see if American hospitals can use the Danish implementation model. Result: Danish implementation model is applicable to American hospitals despite the differences in Danish healthcare system. Committed executive management team and a well-planned implementation team were needed for EHR adoption