Electronic Forms Management System

Your facility wants to implement an electronic health record (EHR) in about 5 years. Time and money are preventing you from doing it sooner. In the meantime, you want to get a better handle on your forms management. Currently you are still creating your forms. You are having the forms printed off by your local printing company in large bulk, and storing them in your materials management department. This is costly but effective. You tried just in time inventory, but this failed miserably because departments constantly failed to order supplies in advance. You are considering replacing the current method with an electronic forms management system. This system would allow you to design the forms, then store the files on a centralized server. When a patient is admitted, a packet of admission forms would be printed based on the patient type. Individual forms could also be printed on demand. The patient name and other identifying information would print out on the form.

Questions

1. What the pros to implementing the forms management system?
2. What are the cons?
3. What departments would need to be involved in implementing the system? Why?
4. Would you recommend doing this if you expect to implement an EHR in about 5 years? Why or why not?