Everyone Wins!
(1/12/2012)
Regional partners collaborate on 5.6 go-LIVE.


Imagine your implementation resembled an old-fashioned barn raising, with neighbors travelling from miles around to help out. Well, that is exactly what happened to Halton Healthcare Services (Oakville, ON). With a little assistance from The Royal Victoria Hospital (Barrie, ON), Headwaters Health Care Center (Orangeville, ON), and Georgian Bay General Hospital (Midland, ON), Halton completed the project under budget and minimized the resources required from patient care areas.

Thinking Outside the Box
Halton Clinical Informatics Manager Elaine Hooper recalls how the novel approach came about. "We have a history of collaboration, as well as a great friendship. One day, I was having a discussion with Andrea Partridge, Manager of Clinical Informatics and Applications at RVH, about how difficult it was becoming to pull staff from nursing units to support implementations, when she said, 'Give me a call, I have an idea'."

Together, Partridge and Hooper laid out the plan—recruiting application analysts from each hospital in the region to work with Halton's core team. "We felt Halton would benefit from both the expertise of clinical staff familiar with MEDITECH and the additional human resources to support a go-LIVE," says Partridge.

All four regional partners' executives saw real potential in the creative solution, and quickly bought in to Partridge and Hooper's plans. "Upper management understands the work of analysts," says Hooper. "They are the liaisons between technology and clinicians, and can teach the technology to others. Bringing in more analysts could only be a positive."

Setting Plans in Motion
The four organizations first connected via conference calls, so Halton's I.S. staff could show the analysts what 5.6 looked like and what to expect. "We know the technology base is always there with MEDITECH, but each hospital uses it slightly differently. Also, the navigation and the look and feel change in 5.6, " Hooper explains. 

Halton then planned the newly formed implementation team's one-week stay. Each hospital paid for their respective team member's travel and accommodations, while Halton supplied office space and catered lunches, as well as access to a nearby kitchen. 

Hooper says, "We even set up a 5.6 "war room." And because having the right tool for the job is key, we provided our guest analysts with loaner laptops, so they could stay in touch with their home sites and test problems that end users were identifying. 

"Our staff was very receptive to this novel idea, so we knew the visiting analysts would feel welcome," continues Hooper. "However, to help them feel even more at home, we put together hospital and city maps, and suggested things to see and do during their free time." 

Filling the Bill 
According to Hooper, Halton's planning paid off. "It was as if we had doubled our analyst team. Knowing things were in good hands, I could tend to implementation and staff issues at our other sites.

"And upper management was really pleased with the results. We eased the burden of the change on everyone by providing support to our I.T. staff and to the end users, without taking nurses away from the bedside. It reduced the pressure that upgrades can sometimes put on care areas."

Hooper adds that the new approach saved a tremendous amount of money for the province, which closely monitors all publicly funded projects. "We're improving the upgrade process while also being good stewards of public money, and we're very proud of that."

Coming Full Circle
When the regional partners first reached out to Halton, they expected to increase their knowledge about 5.6, and yet the learning went far beyond that. "The regional partners are able to apply the implementation planning and lessons learned to their own hospitals' 5.6 upgrades," says Partridge. 

The project was so successful that RVH is thinking about hosting a site that would like to learn from the regional partners' shared upgrade approach. Partridge says, "We believe other sites should consider collaborating, because it enables the partner hospitals to be better prepared for their own 5.6 go-LIVEs.

"Finding that deeper level of sharing is for the common good," she adds. "After all, we're working toward the same goals, which is to improve patient safety using clinical knowledge and technology."

 

 

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