Student Name

Capella University

NURS-FPX6426 Nursing Informatics Life Cycle Management

Professor name

Submission Date

Executive Summary

This report contains a description of the informatics structure, suggested project roles, proposed fiscal budget, anticipated improvements in patient safety, and contingency plans. A mature implementation report helps to keep all parties focused on the organization’s goals for information system change, and it will help to ensure that the implementation change is continued. The Stakeholder Needs Assessment has validated the need to optimize the performance of the Epic EHR and ensure it can be used as a tool to optimize patient safety, reduce medications errors, and advance digital equity in our community. This report will serve as a stepping stone to be used in the planning of the Epic optimization project to ensure it is done in a responsible way, based on evidence and from the patient’s perspective.

Patient Safety and Healthcare Outcome Benefits

The advantages of implementing an information system change in order to enhance patient safety and health benefits are substantial, and are well documented. In its next step to optimizing the use of the electronic health record (EHR), Riverside Community Hospital will be moving to a new version of the system. This optimization will help reduce errors when prescribing and administering medications, provide enhanced clinical decision support, as well as better coordinate care with all providers. According to Trout et al. (2022), an advanced EHR can have a significant impact on patient safety outcomes, reduce adverse events and enhance the quality of the health care delivery system. Once we have identified a set of anticipated benefits, we have a solid evidence-based rationale for conducting the Epic Implementation Project.

Strategies to Protect Health Information and Project Recommendations

When the organization or natural person makes an information systems change or if change occurs in ownership, it is important responsibility of all concerned that such an organization or natural person has a responsibility for protection and security of health information. Some of the suggested approaches to protect health information at Riverside Community Hospital include multi-factor authentication (MFA), Virtual Private Network (VPN) access, encrypted cloud storage and regular cybersecurity training for everyone who works with the Epic system. Roles in informatics may include the nursing informatics / project manager who will be responsible for supporting the nursing and physician teams with implementing the above changes, as well as the IT security lead. According to research by Suleski et al. (2023), it is believed that having more than one layer of cybersecurity, such as encryption and MFA, is the most efficient method to keep EHR systems protected from unauthorized access/ or data breaches. The total projected expense of the changes will be about $2,000,000, which includes software license for each system, hardware upgrade, training staff on the new systems and on-going technical support for the first year.

Fiscal Budget and Impact of the Implementation Plan

The creation of a proper fiscal budget that supports the sustainability and success of the overall implementation of the epic EHR project at Riverside Community Hospital is essential to its success. Riverside Community Hospital will need to utilize a capital expenditure budget as a capital expenditure budget consists of both; (1) one-time expenditures (hardware, software, training) and (2) ongoing operating costs which will be identified by the reducing and continuing operational savings generated by this new EHR system. The total projections of the projected budgeting breakdown of costs are divided into four categories; total cost involved in licensing the epic EHR system is $800,000, upgrading the required hardware is $400,000, training staff on how to use this new EHR system is $500,000, and reserving funds for contingencies and continued running costs associated with the new EHR system is $300,000 (Holmgren et al., 2021). Studies indicate that well-designed and properly-functioning EHR use will yield a return on investment (ROI) for the hospital with improved operational efficiencies and reduced operational errors within years 3-5. By developing a level of detail in the fiscal budgets for this project; it also provides all of the stakeholders a complete understanding of Riverside Community Hospital’s total monetary impact and potentially future long term ROI.

Change Management Strategies and Current System Recommendations

Stakeholders support new business transformation efforts related to new information systems, so companies need to have a good change management plan so stakeholders will have continued support. Riverside Community Hospital adopted an Epic electronic health record (EHR) system in the Transformation Initiative, aiming to both improve the existing EHR’s capabilities, improve telehealth service delivery capabilities, and enhance the use of advanced analytics for clinical decision-making and providing the capability to use the Epic EHR across all community provider organizations. By leveraging clinical project champions to provide support for the project’s success, providing a clear, well communicated vision, celebrating the little victories along the way to keep the momentum going, and using Kotter’s change process model throughout the project will result in significant reduction of staff resistance and increase in overall EHR implementation success rates as seen in inter-professional nursing informatics teams (McDonnell et al., 2026). This change will benefit all stakeholders as it will alleviate anxiety, enhance assurance and create a more inclusive environment for all staff that will be involved in the optimization process for Epic EHR.

Contingency Planning: Cybersecurity, System Crashes, and Black Swan Events

A plan to address disruptions to healthcare information systems needs to be part of the implementation of every healthcare provider. If a cyber attack is experienced at Riverside Community Hospital, then employees will follow the cyber security breach plan. Once a breach has been detected, the systems will prompt the initial institute how to stop all operations and immediately alert IT security staff. Patient safety will be maintained throughout the course of the breach response. If there is a total outage of the systems at Riverside Community Hospital, the same procedures will be followed. Written documentation for each downtime will be used in the hospital and a telephone tree will be used to communicate with all staff beginning at the hospital. Riverside Community Hospital will also inform all hospital staff an anticipated recovery time for all systems. Cheon et al. (2025) found that healthcare organizations that have outlined downtime and contingency plans experience far fewer patient safety incidents when their EHRs are down or not working. Proactive activities being planned will put Riverside Community Hospital at ease that they are providing safe and uninterrupted care for their patients while enacting mitigation measures.

Conclusion

This document is a summary of this project (the executive summary is the summary that contains the major findings, recommendations, and implementation plan for optimizing the Epic EHR system at Riverside Community Hospital). The findings of a needs assessment identified that Riverside Community Hospital’s top priorities are improved functionality; enhanced cyber security; more effective workflows; and increased capability/availability for telehealth. Cost of the initiative is estimated at about $2 million, and will be implemented in about seven months, following Kotter’s principles of change management.