Achieving EHR Implementation Success with SMART Goals

An Expert Guide to Setting and Meeting Your Electronic Health Records Objectives

Smart goals are objectives that help healthcare organizations successfully adopt electronic health records. Setting smart goals creates a clear framework for implementing EHRs in a focused, strategic way to achieve improved patient care, efficiency, and other key outcomes.

Simply purchasing and installing an Electronic Health Record system is not enough to realize its full benefits. The key to a successful EHR implementation is setting clearly defined goals to keep your project on track.

This is where SMART goals come in. SMART is an acronym that stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. It provides a framework for articulating your EHR objectives so they are targeted, trackable, realistic, meaningful, and deadline-driven.

In this comprehensive guide, we will cover everything you need to know about crafting SMART goals for EHR implementation. Properly setting and actively managing your SMART goals is crucial for EHR project success. 

Let’s get started!

Understanding SMART Goals

SMART is a widely used system for setting business objectives that meet certain criteria to enhance their effectiveness. Applying the SMART framework to your EHR implementation goals helps maintain focus and ensure you achieve the desired outcomes.

Here is what each of the SMART letters represents:

Specific	Goals should clearly define what you want to accomplish with concrete details.
Measurable	There must be quantifiable metrics to track progress towards the goal.
Achievable	Goals should be realistic given available resources and constraints.
Relevant	Goals must align with overall business and care delivery priorities.
Time-bound	Goals must have clearly defined completion dates to create urgency.

For example, a SMART goal might be “Improve preventive care screening rates by 10% within 6 months of EHR implementation.”

This goal satisfies all the SMART criteria:

• Specific: Increase preventive care screening rates
• Measurable: By 10%
• Achievable: A 10% boost is reasonable with workflow improvements
• Relevant: Preventative care is a priority area
• Time-bound: Within 6 months of EHR go-live

Setting SMART goals equips you to execute your EHR implementation strategically and evaluate your progress.

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Key Areas for Setting SMART EHR Goals

When developing your SMART objectives, you want to pinpoint the aspects of care delivery that are most important to your organization. Focusing your goals around key priority areas will ensure your EHR unlocks targeted benefits.

Some examples of priority areas might include:

• Improving clinical outcomes: Enhancing preventative care, chronic disease management, post-discharge follow-up, care coordination, medication adherence, etc.
• Increasing efficiency: Reducing paperwork, speeding up documentation, eliminating redundant processes, improving care team communication.
• Enhancing revenue performance: Maximizing appropriate reimbursement, reducing claims denials, improving coding accuracy and charge capture.
• Improving safety and quality: Reducing medical errors, cutting hospital readmissions, boosting patient satisfaction scores.
• Meeting regulatory requirements: Facilitating compliance with quality reporting programs, public health agency submissions, CMS mandates, and HIPAA.
• Expanding care access: Offering patient portal, telehealth, and other technology-enabled services to increase convenience.
  

Once you identify 3-5 priority areas, you can develop targeted SMART goals that will drive results in alignment with your broader objectives. 

For example, improving clinical outcomes for diabetes patients might be a priority area, leading to a goal of increasing foot exam compliance by 15% in the first year.

Goal Area	SMART Goal Examples
Patient Experience	Improve patient satisfaction scores related to provider communication by 20% within 9 months post-EHR go-live.Reduce patient complaints about front desk wait times by 30% after 6 months using EHR automated check-in.
Clinical Quality	Increase diabetic foot exam compliance from 67% to 80% within the first year of EHR implementation.Decrease hospital readmission rates for heart failure patients by 15% 18 months after EHR go-live.
Care Coordination	Improve care transitions as measured by a 10% reduction in post-discharge ED visits within 1 year of EHR implementation.Double the percentage of post-hospital follow-up appointments completed within 7 days to 60% within 2 years after EHR go-live.
Safety	Eliminate transcription errors resulting in adverse drug events within 3 months following EHR adoption.Reduce duplicate lab test orders by 30% after 1 year of using EHR-enabled clinical decision support.
Efficiency	Decrease average wait time for medical record retrieval from 45 to 15 minutes within 6 months post-EHR implementationEliminate all paper-based documentation and transition to 95% digital within 1 year after system go-live.
Revenue Cycle	Reduce days in accounts receivable by 20% from 45 days to 36 days within 18 months following EHR adoptionImprove charge capture to capture 99% of services rendered within 1 year of EHR go-live.

The specific targets you establish should be grounded in your organization's starting benchmarks and the realistic impact of workflow changes enabled by EHRs.

Be sure to make goals quantifiable with clear completion timeframes. Outcomes measured against baselines demonstrate whether you’ve achieved discrete objectives. Deadlines create accountability.

Monitoring Progress Towards SMART Goals

The work doesn’t stop once you’ve documented SMART goals. You need to regularly monitor progress through quantitative metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs).

KPIs serve as warning signs when goals are in danger of falling behind schedule. For example:

• Patient experience goal: Survey scores, wait time data
• Clinical quality goal: Exam compliance rates, readmission rates
• Care coordination goal: Post-discharge follow-up rates, ED utilization
• Safety goal: Adverse drug event rates, duplicate order rates
  Efficiency goal: Chart retrieval times, paper documentation rates
• Revenue cycle goal: Days in A/R, charge capture rates
  

Plan to review indicators relative to targets at least monthly. If certain goals are significantly off-track, you may need to adjust timelines, dedicate more resources, or intervene with additional training. Updating SMART goals is sometimes necessary based on changing circumstances after initial establishment.

Regular progress monitoring maintains focus on crossing the finish line, so you fully capitalize on your EHR investment.

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How to Overcome Common EHR Implementation Challenges

While SMART goals create a clear roadmap, the path to successful EHR adoption also comes with hurdles that can impede your progress:

Resistance to Workflow Changes

Many healthcare providers and staff are accustomed to traditional paper-based systems. Effective communication, education, and engaging users early in the process can help mitigate this resistance. Emphasizing the benefits of EHRs is crucial for gaining buy-in from staff.

Limited IT Resources

Organizations often face challenges due to thinly spread IT teams, which may struggle with EHR setup and ongoing maintenance. Outsourcing certain tasks can alleviate some of the implementation workload, allowing internal teams to focus on critical areas.

Complex System Configurations

Customizing EHR systems to meet specific organizational needs requires significant time and expertise. Utilizing vendor consulting services can help manage these complexities effectively.

Poor User Adoption

Insufficient training and change management can lead to low user engagement with the new system. Implementing robust training programs and providing onsite support are essential for improving user comfort and competency with the EHR.

Suboptimal Data Migration

Inadequate data migration from legacy systems can severely limit the usefulness of patient histories in the new EHR. Investing in thorough data mapping and validation processes is critical to avoid data loss or inaccuracies.

Unanticipated Costs

EHR implementation costs can exceed initial budgets due to hidden fees or unexpected needs. It’s advisable to build financial contingencies into the project plan and negotiate software contracts carefully to manage costs effectively.

With proactive planning and mitigation strategies, your organization can prevent these pitfalls from obstructing your SMART goals. Identifying risks upfront allows you to anticipate and address challenges.

Achieve Maximum Value from Your EHR

Whether your goals focus on engagement, outcomes, safety, efficiency, or finances, the SMART methodology keeps you on track. Combine diligent progress monitoring with adaptability to overcome hurdles. With targeted goals guiding the way, your organization can completely transform care delivery with EHRs.

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