Using a custom mobile application for change management in an electronic health record implementation

OBJECTIVES: Institutions cite managing the modification in infrastructure, technical support, and process change as substantial barriers to a successful electronic health record (EHR) implementation. In an effort to organize and centralize the complex scheduling, task completion and communication needs of a “big-bang” EHR go-live, we developed a unified communication system with the goal of improving implementation process efficiency. Our goal was to create a platform that would work across the medical enterprise. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We employed an agile process to design the application, called Hubbl, based on initial requirements and iteratively obtained stakeholder user. The final feature set included role-specific organization, integrated communication, task and content management tooling, and embedded project information retrieval, all embedded into the end user’s day to day activities. RESULTS: User enrollment continually increased from launch in February of 2017 through go-live day. During the pre-go-live period, usage increased from an average of 7.37 events/user/day to 18.65 events/user/day with over 97 communications sent across all periods. 5400 unique users accessed tip sheets and information retrieval tools averaged 28.84 searches/user/day during the go-live period with an average high of 46.33 searches/user/day 5 days post-go-live. User access during go-live and post-go-live averaged 12.82 accesses/user/day and decreased from 20.42 average accesses on day one of go live to 14.07 averaged accesses on day 60 of post-go-live with over 727 tasks monitored to completion during all periods. CONCLUSION: Hubbl was an essential component of our communication, task coordination, and change management strategy, for our EHR go live. Institutions that choose a unified mobile and web-based platform during a substantial IT (information technology) implementation can feasibly ensure task completion, project coordination, and timely information dissemination.