When Floyd goes live with an integrated EMR in October, it’ll be, as the great Yogi Berra said, like déjà vu all over again for Jennifer Barbieri, M.D., a Harbin Clinic pulmonologist with privileges at Floyd.

Dr. Barbieri was on staff at the University of Alabama when their medical center transitioned to a Cerner EMR system.

“The actual medical record itself ended up being helpful information that was easily accessible,” Dr. Barbieri said. “It helped your workflow and gave you better access in a more convenient way.”

She acknowledges that the initial transition to EMR brought its share of issues.

“Change is painful,” she said, “particularly if you have barriers to technology. Challenges should be anticipated, but the longer term benefits outweigh the inconvenience during the transition.”

Built-in software alerts create a safer environment by signaling to caregivers when a potential adverse reaction, allergy or medication interaction arises. And, Dr. Barbieri said the ICU system she used at UAB included a summary that broke down information in a way that improved rounding. Also, Cerner’s responsiveness helped ensure that unforeseen issues were resolved quickly.

“There is a lot of flexibility with the system,” she said, “and Cerner was very responsive to make it work for us.”

Some of those issues may not be an issue at Floyd, she said, because of the organization’s decision to phase-in the EMR system rather than attempting, as UAB did, to go-live on all fronts all at once.

“There seems to be more input on the front end to tailor it like it needs to be done so that it is user friendly,” she said.

Training for the EMR system begins in August, and Dr. Barbieri said the hands-on training in a classroom setting was helpful. Most helpful, though, were the resources available at go-live.

“We had a lot of super-users around who were good resources,” she said. They also had an active computer help line and a help desk that ran 24/7. When you had issues, you had somebody to go to quickly.”

Floyd will have super-users and around-the-clock EMR assistance available throughout the transition phase to help users navigate the patient record efficiently and effectively, said Brian Barnette, Chief Information Officer.

“We will have many resources available to our medical staff beginning at go-live and continuing for several weeks afterward,” he said. “We learned a lot from our Phase 1 implementation, when we successfully introduced EMR in Surgery and in the Emergency Care Center. We’ve taken the lessons we learned there, made adjustments, and will be prepared for this transition. EMR is a culture shift for everyone, and our goal is to make it as seamless as possible.”