A physician group's movement toward electronic health records: A case study using the transtheoretical model for organizational change.

Abstract

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009 authorized the distribution of $34 billion through Medicare and Medicaid as adoption incentives to qualified providers to implement and use certified Electronic Health Records (EHR). In the case study presented here, which followed the transtheoretical model (TTM), employees of a multispecialty physician group were asked about their movement to EHR. The employees were part of a multispecialty physician group with 17 different offices and 73 providers in the greater south central Pennsylvania area. Sixteen employees from the physician group participated in a one-on-one interview. Interview questions were designed to identify actions that define successful EHR implementation, readiness to take actions toward successful EHR implementation, pros and cons of EHR implementation, and classification of change processes being utilized to move the multispecialty group toward successful EHR implementation. Interview data provided preliminary evidence of the applicability of the TTM to studies of EHR implementation.