Which of the following describes the initial planning and project development steps for an EHR implementation?

• A. The steps are fixed and unchangeable
• B. They include identifying stakeholders, forming a steering committee, and developing a strategic plan
• C. They focus exclusively on hardware procurement
• D. They occur after go-live

Answer: (B)

Early planning and governance establish the direction for an EHR implementation. The most effective initial steps involve identifying who will be affected and who must be involved—clinicians, IT staff, administrators, compliance, and other stakeholders—forming a steering committee to provide governance and decision-making, and developing a strategic plan that defines the project’s scope, goals, timelines, budget, resource needs, and success metrics. This foundation guides later activities like workflow analysis, data migration, vendor selection, and the rollout itself, and it’s revisited as the project progresses to adapt to new information. These steps occur before go-live and require ongoing adjustment, rather than being fixed and unchangeable. Planning isn’t about hardware alone; it coordinates people, processes, and technology to achieve the desired outcomes.