Category Archives: Implementation
Team Building and your Electronic Health Record – Guest Article
Hi all,
We have another guest article for you today! Today we are pleased to feature Kevin Andrews, who wrote today’s piece, Team Building and your Electronic Health Record.
Kevin is the Director of IT at Anka Behavioral Health, Inc. He is currently involved in the company-wide implementation of AnkaCare, a customized EHR specific to Behavioral Health Services (Defran’s Evolv-CS), across 80 programs in California, Georgia and Delaware.
Team Building and your Electronic Health Record
So you want an EHR do you?
Whether driven by the desire to better serve your clients, the cost savings of a more efficient system or the enticement of Meaningful Use dollars, you are probably finding out right about now that this is a complicated project. There is a lot of homework you will need to do, and if you are the fearless leader of this project you will be wearing a lot of hats. IT, HR, Finance, Clinical – you really cannot do it all by yourself. You are going to need a team.
Team building, maintenance and preservation is critical to getting your EHR off the ground within your timeline and ensuring that it lives up to or exceeds your vision. Here are a few things that you may want to consider when building and managing your team:
- Management Commitment: Executive Management needs to FULLY buy into the process. Implementing an EHR will necessitate making sweeping changes both operationally and culturally. They need to be able to understand and ultimately champion these changes.
- Expectations: If you do not have dedicated staff assigned to your EHR development, then you will need to openly set reasonable resource expectations for yourself, your team and your management.
- Resource Capacity: With any luck you will have some of the best talent each department has to offer, but they will also need the capacity and authorization to make hard decisions and stick to their guns.
- Resource Scavenging: Remember, if your team is good, then they are also in demand, so you will need to have management create a buffer for you to keep them from being diverted to other activities!
- Staff Training: Make sure your team has access to sufficient training, support and room for creativity. An EHR is complicated system and your team must have access to both internal and vendor resources. They should also be encouraged to think outside the box on how the system can be used. There is a lot of opportunity to create information systems that can be highly valuable to your organization!
- Lateral integration: Now is a great time to break down the natural silos that different facilities and business units create. Your team’s greater understanding of systems outside their own specialty can help to create a more efficient and robust EHR!
Everyone wants to be part of something bigger and feel that they had a hand in the creation of something vital to the growth and prosperity of their company and the consumers it serves. This can help keep your team thriving in the face of the many challenges they will need to overcome in implementing your EHR!
Can Less EHR Customization be a Good Thing?
There’s no question that EHR customization is good. In your software evaluation process, it’s important to ensure that your prospective EHRs support the programs you operate and can be configured to your agency’s specific program needs. Additionally, it’s critical that your EHR and financial management system can effectively record and organize the data you need to report to your specific funders, as the type and format of data that they require varies by state and program type.
However, some providers go one step further and ask: can we customize this EHR’s workflows and procedures around our existing business processes? For robust EHR and financial management systems, the answer is usually yes, and for niche agencies that provide extremely complex and intensive services, the answer to this question is a crucial one.
For most agencies however, it may be wise to take a step back and ask instead: is there a reason why the system is designed the way it is? Why are its built-in processes, such as the way it handles treatment plans and workflows, different from how we currently operate?
In this case, it’s important to remember that leading vendors with extensive experience in the human services market have been working with providers for many years to optimize their business practices, improve efficiency, and ultimately enable the agency to serve more people and provide a higher quality of care. Thus, it’s likely that best practices from their experience implementing and supporting their numerous customers are already built into the system.
That being said, you should definitely make sure this is the case rather than choosing an out-of-touch vendor!
When you are choosing an EHR system, you may want to ask these questions to yourself and to your prospective vendor:
1) If our current agency’s business processes are different than what’s built into the EHR we are implementing, is it worth revisiting how we do business? Can this software facilitate a change that improves the way we operate?
2) Do we trust that our vendor has the expertise to build best-practices into the system?
A good way to get an answer to number 2 is to talk with your current or prospective software provider and ask whether they have developers, trainers and implementers who have previous experience in the human services field. Additionally, it is also worth asking how heavily does customer feedback influence the design and evolution of their software? This way, you can ensure your agency always remains at the forefront of your industry.
Do you have any experience with these issues? The Spotlight would love to hear your thoughts on the matter! Feel free to comment below or shoot an email to editor@humanservicesspotlight.com
The Hidden Costs of On-Premise Deployment
When a provider begins to determine its EHR needs during its software evaluation process, one of its biggest decisions is whether to install its new software on-premise or have it hosted in the cloud. One of the main reasons people choose an on-premise deployment model is that everything is under your agency’s control and is hosted on your site. However, while this control can be appealing, there are some hidden costs associated with this model.
With an on-premise solution, your agency is responsible for managing your server hardware, security and data recovery, maintenance, and upgrading the software. Even if your agency already owns the necessary technological infrastructure for an on-premise deployment, if a later version of your EHR software requires an updated version of Microsoft SQL server or a new operating system, it is your agency’s responsibility to ensure you have the funds to upgrade – a potentially costly expense.
Since a cloud solution is hosted elsewhere, whether by your vendor or a third-party, you are not responsible for software upgrades or infrastructure improvements.
Make sure you are aware of these hidden expenses when choosing your hosting model!
HIPAA 5010 Deadline Unchanged but not Enforced
Healthcare IT News recently reported that while the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has not delayed the compliance date for HIPAA 5010 standards, they will not “initiate enforcement action” on that compliance before March 31, 2011. These standards, an update to HIPAA X12 standards, are important for the eventual transition to ICD-10.
This announcement is perhaps unsurprising, as industry surveys have consistently shown that few providers or EHR vendors describe themselves as ready for the new 5010 standard. It is possible that this sentiment of unpreparedness is due to the industry’s preoccupation with the Meaningful Use program.
Regardless, if you are still evaluating EHR vendors, it is important to see how your potential vendors deal with these industry changes. If they are forward-thinking, they will likely have testing programs already in place. If they don’t, that might be a warning sign that they aren’t industry-savvy or software isn’t very flexible.
Webinar – Easing the Burden of Compliance: Why EHR is the Missing Link
This webinar, hosted by Behavioral Healthcare Magazine and sponsored by Defran Systems, discusses many of the compliance challenges that all human services organizations face, and how EHR technology can help your agency mitigate risk in its operations.
The speakers are Fran Loshin-Turso, President and CEO of Defran Systems, and Daniel Brown, Associate Executive Director of Franziska Racker Centers, a provider of disabilities services based in Ithaca, NY.
If maintaining compliance is a particular difficulty for your organization, it will definitely be worth your time to attend this presentation. Registration is free, and can be done here.
The 7 Deadly Sins of EMR Implementation
A recent article in Healthcare IT News describes some of the biggest mistakes that organizations can make during their implementation of an electronic health system. One is that organizations tend to assume that EHRs are ‘magic bullets,’ meaning that they can solve all of your existing workplace issues, ranging from workflow to record keeping. However, they can also amplify those problems if they aren’t addressed beforehand. An EHR can only be as effective as the foundation it is built upon, so a big part of your implementation should consist of working to solve those existing institutional problems as well as implementing the actual EHR.
USDA and HHS Sign Agreement to Help Expand Health IT Infrastructure in Rural America
This week, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Department of Agriculture (USDA) signed an agreement that would encourage the implementation of health information technology in rural areas. Of specific relevance to the health and human services industry is that this agreement means that rural facilities who are part of the Community Facilities Program through the USDA Rural Development Program can potentially offset the costs of EHR implementation.
If your agency is located in a rural area, you should definitely visit the linked site above to see whether you are qualified for this program, and whether it could potentially save you money when you implement your EHR.
90 Days to Optimal Performance – Why Rapid EHR Implementation is Essential in Today’s Market
On Tuesday, August 2nd, Joseph P. Naughton-Travers, Ed.M., Senior Associate, OPEN MINDS (click for bio) and Nancy Fliss, Partner and Professional Services Lead, Leap the Pond, Inc. will be hosting a free webinar on the EHR implementation models available to your organization.
This 90-minute on-line training session, will provide attendees with an overview of the implementation process, give real world examples of implementation models, and answer the question of which model best fits your organization. Do not miss this must-see on-line webinar featuring a 30 minute question and answer session for attendees!
The webinar agenda includes:
- An overview of the implementation process with real world examples
- Pros and cons of different implementation models
- An in-depth look at rapid implementation
- Tips for choosing which implementation model best fits your organization
Human Services Spotlight 