EHR Implementation Benefits Realisation Plan
This is a practical guide to building a benefits realisation plan for an ehr implementation project — how the project’s benefits will be measured and actually realised, adapted to the realities of implementing an electronic health records system.
What a Benefits Realisation Plan is
A benefits realisation plan is how the project’s benefits will be measured and actually realised. For the full concept and how it works in general, see Benefits Realization. On an ehr implementation project it plays the same role, tuned to this kind of work.
Why it matters for an EHR Implementation project
EHR Implementation projects live or die on implementing an electronic health records system. A well-built benefits realisation plan gives the team a shared, explicit reference for exactly that — reducing ambiguity, aligning stakeholders, and making problems visible early enough to act. Skipping it, or doing it generically, is how ehr implementation projects drift into avoidable delay and cost.
What to include
- Target benefits
- Metrics / KPIs
- Baseline values
- Owner
- Realisation timeline
EHR Implementation-specific considerations
Tailor the benefits realisation plan to the risks that most often derail ehr implementation projects:
- Clinical workflow disruption
- Patient-data privacy
- Clinician adoption
Example
On a real ehr implementation project, the benefits realisation plan would be shaped by implementing an electronic health records system. In particular, it should explicitly account for the project’s biggest risks — clinical workflow disruption, patient-data privacy, clinician adoption — rather than treating them as afterthoughts.