Physician champion

The Role of the Physician Champion in CPOE Success

There may be no more important role for an organization to achieve success in the implementation of a CPOE system than that of physician champion. That individual must be an engaged MD who possesses several key characteristics (1) , including the following:

1. Must be comfortable with health-related IT issues, but an advanced degree or specialized training is neither required nor necessarily desirable (in some cases it is a negative if the physician champion is viewed as “too tech-y”)

2. Must be a recognized clinical leader in the organization, respected by other physicians

3. Must have decision-making authority in the organization

4. Must possess strong interpersonal skills and a good grasp of the principles of organizational behavior and change management (2)

5. Must themselves already be or be willing to become a high-volume, compliant, and passionate user of CPOE

The physician champion should be involved in all steps of a CPOE rollout, including the planning phase and organizational readiness assessment. This includes the assessment of existing workflows and the ability to define and measure the desired change that CPOE will bring. The physician champion must be involved in the training process as well (3) , even though he/she will not be the primary trainer of other physicians. Note that the roles of physician champion and super-user are distinct, with nurses often serving in the latter role in a more direct, supervisory capacity onsite.

The physician champion is the primary liaison between the physicians and the IT staff. He/she must be able to continuously prove to skeptical physicians the benefits of CPOE on patient safety and quality of care despite the inevitable concerns about the impact on workflow and productivity (4) . Physician resistance is one of the primary reasons why CPOE implementations fail or are never attempted in the first place, and the physician champion is the person most responsible for counteracting negativity and medical staff intransigence. The physician champion must be an evangelist who passionately believes in the benefits that CPOE implementation will bring (5). He/she needs to seek out physician input and incorporate user experiences into decision-making. For example, the physician champion is the individual who brings back concerns about workflow impact or other usability issues from frontline physician staff to the IT staff and may have to convey the architectural limitations of the CPOE product to the medical staff.

In larger organizations, the Chief Medical Information Officer may play the role of physician champion and may be chair of the CPOE physician advisory committee. However, the role does not have to be a formal one and in smaller implementations several community-based physicians may serve as champions.

(1) California Healthcare Foundation and First Consulting Group. Computerized physician order entry in community hospitals: Lessons from the field. June 2003. [1]

(2) O’Brien D. Managing Change: Computerized physician order entry. 2003 November 1. Physician Executive. [2]

(3) Roop E. Creative CPOE thinking. For The Record 2007. 19:12. [3]

(4) Poon E et al. Overcoming barriers to adopting and implementing computerized physician order entry systems in U.S. hospitals. Health Affairs 2004. 23:184-90. [4]

(5) First Consulting Group. Computerized physician order entry: Costs, benefits, and challenges. 2003 January. [5]