Bringing nurses into the boardroom

A large Midwest health system was implementing a new electronic health record (EHR) system expected to cost between $200 and $300 million. The board knew that other large health systems had phased in implementation of similar technology, requiring staff to come online first to allow any glitches to be worked out, with physicians coming on board after the initial training and testing. While acknowledging the need to be respectful of physicians' time, a nurse board member spoke out in strong support of shifting staff and physicians simultaneously – providing concrete, clinical examples of why this would be preferable – to eliminate the need for operating two different systems during the transition. Doing so would also eliminate the time-consuming and error-prone task in which nurses or other employees enter physicians' hand-written orders. The board supported the recommendation and the transition to the new EHR system went smoothly. The health system received a prestigious award for health information technology.