Strategic planning for implementation of electronic health records in government hospitals

Introduction: Electronic health record (EHR) is an indispensable tool for medical and health professionals. They are the product of decades’ worth of innovation and constant improvement. EHRs are implemented around the world a while ago.Though India has progressed well in the adoption of IT in other sectors, such as banking, railway reservation, etc, it has not yet utilized the potential of IT in the healthcare sector. The Union Health Ministry has notified the National eHealth Authority (NeHA) which plays a role for setting directions for public and private eHealth initiatives, including electronic health records storage and health information exchange capabilities and other related health information technology efforts & regulation of the same. Objectives: The study aims at strategic planning for implementation of Electronic Health Record in the government Hospitals in India. Methods: A descriptive analytical study for implementation of electronic health records using SWOT (Strength, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats) and PESTLE (Political, Economical, Social, Technological, Legal and Ethical) analysis. Results: A broad range of administrative, technical, financial and organizational factors should be considered when adopting an EHR system. Communication between different healthcare providers canenable hospitals to properly plan, select, implement and integrate different health IT projects. The hospitals should collaborate with each other to bridge the gap between internal capacity and external resources. Conclusion: Timely & quick access to information is the important strength. Lack of hardware and infrastructures are the most important weakness. Having the potential to share information between different sectors and access to a variety of health statistics is the significant opportunity of EHR. The most substantial threats are the physicians' and other clinical staff's resistance in the use of electronic health records. The successful implementation of EHR requires a coordinated effort the Central Government, State Governments, healthcare providers, medical associations, IT industry.