What to expect from electronic patient record system implementation; lessons learned from published evidence.

Background:  Numerous studies have examined specific factors related to success, failure and implications of Electronic patient record (EPR) system implementations, but usually limited to specific aspects.  Objective: To review the published peer-reviewed literature and present findings regarding factors important in relation to successful EPR implementations and likely impact on subsequent clinical activity.

Method:  Literature reviewResults: 312 potential articles were identified on initial search of which 117 were relevant and included in the review. Several factors were related to implementation success, such as good leadership and management, infrastructure support, staff training and focus on workflows and usability. In general, EPR implementation is associated with improvements in documentation, and screening performance, and reduced prescribing errors, whereas there are minimal available data in other areas such as effects on clinical patient outcomes. The peer-reviewed literature appears to under-represent a range of technical factors important for EPR implementations, such as data migration from existing systems and impact of organisational readiness.

Conclusion: The findings presented here represent synthesis of data from peer-reviewed literature in the field and should be of value to provide the evidence-base for organisations considering how best to implement an EPR system.