Patient Input in Rural Health Care Settings

Engaging patients at the beginning of the electronic health record (EHR) implementation process is especially important in rural health care settings. Rural health care organizations often play significant roles in their communities and patients are often very invested in the welfare of their local health care organizations. Patient involvement will help your organization:

• Identify and address patient concerns, focusing your EHR implementation on the issues most important to your patients
• Discover barriers to EHR implementation previously unseen
• Ascertain how much financial and human capital will need to be spent educating patients about EHRs
• Increase patient understanding and cooperation, diminishing the likelihood of patient resistance during EHR implementation

To engage patients as you start the EHR implementation process, you can organize patient focus groups, conduct patient surveys, or elicit feedback from patients during visits.

For More Information

For more information about patient involvement in rural health care settings, see the following resources.

• Who are the key stakeholders in this project? How can they be engaged?
• How do I educate patients about health IT?