EHR Implementation Project Schedule
This is a practical guide to building a project schedule for an ehr implementation project — the planned dates for performing activities and reaching milestones, adapted to the realities of implementing an electronic health records system.
What a Project Schedule is
A project schedule is the planned dates for performing activities and reaching milestones. For the full concept and how it works in general, see Project Scheduling. 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 project schedule 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
- Activity list
- Durations and dependencies
- Critical path
- Milestones
- Baseline dates
EHR Implementation-specific considerations
Tailor the project schedule 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 project schedule 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.