EHR Risk Management

Without evaluating risk, issue management alone is an incomplete strategy for an Electronic Health Record (EHR) project. Do not misunderstand, issue management is very important, but without preventing issues managing them alone will not reduce the number of issues. All resources, for the most part, are familiar with issue management on EHR projects. Issues include software and organizational related items that impact the project. The key difference is in regard to consequences to the project. An issue, such as a software defect, has an immediate effect on the project. On the other hand, a risk has the potential to affect the project but has not yet come to fruition. Issue management is reactive since once it occurs the only option is to react by managing the impact. Risk management techniques will provide a proactive strategy when combined with issue management to provide a comprehensive strategy for an EHR project.

So what level of risk management is appropriate? The Project Management Book of Knowledge (PMBOK®) has a chapter dedicated to risk management. The key is to use tools and techniques that are appropriate for the scope of the project. A small budget three month EHR project does not require a Monte Carlo analysis, so what risk techniques are appropriate? The key is to have a project manager with the education and experience to use the appropriate tools and techniques. An easy step is to add risk review as a standing agenda item for team meetings. Do not underestimate the benefit of challenging each team member to a weekly review of potential risks. Setting the expectation that each member is responsible for identifying risks will leverage the collective experience and will result in more effective planning and decision making. The project manager is responsible for managing the risk management plan, however too often only identifies risks from one perspective. Team members will have various insights and perspectives. Implement this intervention today and you will begin to have less unforeseen issues, better planning and decision making.

In upcoming blogs we will discuss risk tools and techniques for EHR projects. If you would like to synch the blog with Outlook click on “ATOM” on the left to setup an RSS feed.