EHR Implementation Cost Estimate
This is a practical guide to building a cost estimate for an ehr implementation project — a forecast of the money required to complete the work, adapted to the realities of implementing an electronic health records system.
What a Cost Estimate is
A cost estimate is a forecast of the money required to complete the work. For the full concept and how it works in general, see Cost Estimation. 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 cost estimate 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
- Labour costs
- Material/equipment costs
- Indirect costs
- Contingency
- Estimate basis and assumptions
EHR Implementation-specific considerations
Tailor the cost estimate 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 cost estimate 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.