ABSTRACT
The chief information officer at a large teaching hospital, with support from executive management at the hospital, committed to implementing an electronic medication administration record (eMAR) with bedside documentation. Ultimately, all devices arrived on the eMAR pilot medicine inpatient unit, the information technology (IT) team implemented the software, and the nursing unit went live. Most importantly, clinical IT initiatives require the leadership of the clinician end-users. If the nursing department had led or co-led the eMAR initiative, the ensuing problems would have been less likely to develop unmonitored. All the issues mentioned as real problems appeared after the system was turned on and especially after the extra support during go-live was withdrawn: small font sizes, inadequate training of nurses floating to the pilot unit, crashing workstations on wheels (WOW), and near total collapse of the help desk. Vendors demonstrated WOWs of different sizes, weights, and with varying degrees of mobility, to the nursing and IT groups.
