Harris Memorial Hospital Case Study

Your healthcare organization, Harris Memorial Hospital, needs to look at both “hard” and “soft” savings when considering a system’s return on investment. Today’s presentation we will take a deeper look at the soft returns when implementing an electronic health record (EHR) system. It is important to remember that indirect savings are usually applied to processes not easily measured and, thus, quantifying savings can be difficult to see at first. We will look at the three steps in documenting soft returns: (1) identifying a process improvement opportunity, which is improved time/efficiency; (2) create a formula to calculate the benefits; (3) and determine the costs of the process and the net benefits. In order to determine the return benefits from EHR implementation, it is necessary to establish baseline metrics that can be used as a guideline for measuring success after the implementation. Harris Memorial Hospital needs to establish baseline metrics so they are prepared to evaluate both hard and soft returns to understand the full scope of benefits. So today we are examining …show more content…
First, executives must set expectations and support initiatives. It is critical that the corporation’s values and missions support the strategic plan and is in align with the hospital’s IT goals. Next, budgets must be adequate to achieve the strategic intent. HIMSS Analytics Database in 2011 found that the average IT budget in U.S. hospitals represents 2.63% of the operating budget. Third, project management is essential to success. Routine meetings with stakeholder is the key to achieving a smooth implementation process. Lastly, the project will fail if there is not individual “buy-in” from employees. The needs and preferences of the end-users is a critical component in the process, which will increase the soft returns (ROI Research in Healthcare,