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EMR Success Stories - Tomah Memorial Hospital

Location

Tomah, Wisconsin

Number of EMR Users

Thirty-two (32) attending physicians (including PAs), and ninety-seven (97) clinical and support staff.

EMR Adoption Story

TMH struggled with a "half-completed" EMR solution that was developed internally over a seven (7) year period. Phil Stuart, TMH Administrator, comments.

"Our EMR system was never very good, and everyone knew that. We kept hoping for the day when development would reach a feasible level of functionality, but development was slow, and the changes necessitated by each new version were very disruptive. Eventually, providers and staff turned totally against EMR, and they wanted to return to paper documentation. Finally, someone had the courage to suggest that we look at an outside EMR solution. We formed a committee, and our search for a vendor and system began."

"We implemented a new EMR solution in late 2008, and although integration efforts continue, everyone is pleased with the new system. We went from despising EMR to embracing it. Everyone is eager to use the new system to its fullest potential, and they put in extra time and effort to learn the new system. What a change!"

Were We to Do It Over Again

"Of course, hindsight is 20-20, but were we to do it all over again, I think we would take an entirely different approach from the beginning. It's tempting to develop your own EMR solution internally, because of the promise of fewer integration issues involving your legacy systems and perhaps for other reasons, but in our case, I think we put too much stock in that perceived benefit. We also placed too much faith in our IT function, presuming they could develop necessary functionality in an economical way. There's no question that, given enough time and money, our IT function could have delivered. You might say we just ran out of patience. In short, our important lesson is that the prospect of easier integration means nothing if the solution being integrated does not meet your needs. There are many viable EMR solutions out there on the market, and there's simply no point to creating what already exists."