Preparing Your Practice for an EHR Transition

1. Give decisions a named owner

Select a practice coordinator, clinical lead, administrative lead, technical contact, and vendor implementation contact. One person may hold several roles in a small office. Record who approves workflow decisions, data checks, permissions, and the final readiness decision.

HealthIT.gov’s implementation guidance emphasizes governance, staff involvement, workflow preparation, and training. Reserve time for those tasks in the practice schedule rather than assuming they happen between appointments.

2. Agree what happens to existing information

Ask both vendors what can be exported and imported, which formats they support, and what remains outside the new system. Distinguish information available for viewing from information usable in the new workflow. An exported document and a working entry in the new EHR may serve different purposes.

• List record categories, attachments, open work, and historical information to review.
• Name who performs the migration, checks completeness, and resolves discrepancies.
• Confirm how authorized staff will access information that does not transfer.

3. Prepare checks for real staff roles

Write short scenarios with the responsible staff: registration, patient identification, documentation, orders, result follow-up, billing handoff, and messages. The clinical lead selects the scenarios and judges clinical suitability. Use vendor-approved test data and the agreed testing environment.

• For each scenario, record the role, starting information, expected result, and reviewer.
• Record whether the check passed, what failed, and who owns the correction.
• Check who receives unfinished work when a staff member is absent.

4. Check the supporting arrangements

Confirm supported devices, browsers, printers, scanners, connections, permissions, and interfaces with the vendors responsible. Ask how the team will test each required connection and who handles a failed check.

Review the practice-approved downtime process and how staff will reconcile work after access returns. The SAFER Guides identify system management, contingency planning, patient identification, and result follow-up as areas for EHR safety review. A working login alone does not cover these workflows.

5. Hold a readiness review

Keep one open-items list with the issue, affected workflow, owner, evidence, and decision needed. Ask each role lead to confirm training, access, migration checks, and support contacts. The practice decides which unresolved issues prevent go-live and what must happen next. Record that decision and arrange follow-up review of issues staff discover in use.