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| 370-bed Hospital, New
York |
Information Technology
Department Assessment |
| Facing
on-going challenges of serving its community while
remaining financially solvent, the management company
that operates the Hospital installed new CEO and
CFO to bring organizational and fiscal stability
to the Entity. The new leadership became aware of
a significant number of unmet Information Technology
(IT) needs and a general sentiment of dissatisfaction
and frustration among the IT user community. In
an attempt to identify the cause of the dissatisfaction,
and to insure that the department is appropriately
staffed for the challenges it faces, the CEO retained
Ventures in Healthcare to conduct a departmental
assessment. |
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- Assessed the IT Department organization and its
resources in terms of projects at hand and its ability
to complete them
- Determined whether the existing IT Department staff
skill set is appropriate for their current needs
- Evaluated whether the incumbent staff were well
trained and suited for their positions
- Assessed the capabilities of the existing CIO to
determine whether he possessed the skills required
to provide on-going department leadership
- Investigated end-user perceptions and the reasons
for their discontent
- Evaluated the workflow, priority setting, governance
and decision making process
- Identified systemic weaknesses
- Developed and presented recommendations for improvement
of current processes including short- and long-term
organizational structure and budget requirements as
well as process, workflow and governance improvements
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| Vendor of Natural Language
Processing (NLP) Software |
Project Management Services |
| Successful
start-up company offering a unique ASP-based natural
language process by which transcribed medical dictation
is automatically "translated" into medical
billing codes sought temporary project management
assistance to support their client base until the
internal support organization could be further enhanced.
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- Created client profiles that determined needs and
expectations
- Established implementation timelines
- Assisted with development of process flow
- Assisted with interface specification development
- Acted as liaison between client and NLP engineers,
programmers
and support professionals to insure that client expectations
were met
- Provided internal project management to insure adherence
to timelines
- Coordinated testing activities and go-live
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| 480-bed Urban, Academic
Health System, New York |
Selection of PACS and
CR |
| Large
urban academic health system including an acute
care hospital, long-term care facility and over
a dozen clinic locations along with the acute care
hospital had identified Picture Archiving and Communication
System (PACS) and Computed Radiography (CR) as strategic
initiatives. The Health System required a consultant
to structure and lead a due-diligent, unbiased effort
to find the PACS that best suited the organization. |
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- Conducted departmental review and needs assessment
- Provided PACS/CR marketplace overview; identified
likely vendor Request For Information (RFI) recipients
- Established a Selection Committee
- Developed and issued a RFI for PACS and CR. Eleven
PACS vendors were solicited for combination PACS and
CR configurations
- Analyzed RFI responses
- Presented Analysis; identified six semi-finalist
vendors
- Arranged and completed PACS semi-finalist vendor
demonstrations
- Identified two finalist vendors
- Issued Request for Proposal (RFP) for best-and-final
price and configuration from CR vendors. All four
vendors solicited
- Conducted PACS and CR site visits
- Requested best-and-final pricing and configuration
from two finalist PACS vendors
- Analyzed best-and-final offerings from PACS and
CR vendors
- Selected PACS and CR vendors of choice
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| Multi-entity Non-acute
Care Provider & Social HMO, New York |
Project Management:
HIPAA Transaction & Code Set Compliance |
| Multi-entity
organization providing home health care, nursing
home, adult day care and hospice services as well
as two social health maintenance organizations was
facing the HIPAA Transaction & Code Set compliance
deadline without adequate preparation in any of
their lines of business. The client asked Ventures
in Healthcare to provide project management assistance
to help organize and accelerate compliance efforts. |
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Phase I: Revitalized the Project
Phase II: On-going Project Management Assistance
Once resuming each compliance project, Ventures in
Healthcare assisted by continuing to oversee compliance
efforts and identifying issues that continued to jeopardize
compliance initiatives. The following tasks comprised
Phase II:
- Facilitated and participated in implementation
status meetings. Worked with the functional teams
to establish, convene, and participate in regular
team meetings to gauge the successful completion of
the tasks on the project plan.
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Managed the project. Reviewed on an on-going
basis timeframes, commitments, critical milestones,
the documentation process, and resource assignments
and utilization.
- Monitored and advanced the project. Worked
with Client representatives to validate project activities,
establish testing guidelines and dates, and assess
the resource requirements to achieve task completion
by assigned deadlines. Continually updated project
plan, issued internal status reports, obtained regular
updates from participating external entities, centralized
correspondence among all involved parties, attended
status meetings, provided oversight of task assignments
to Client staff, answered questions, and mediated
issues as they arose.
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| Regional Health System,
Florida |
Information Technology
Strategy Development |
| With
a growing interest in Computerized Physician Order
Entry (CPOE) and patient safety on both a national
and state level, as well as the deployment of electronic
health records, while assuring that other information
technology needs will be met in an organized and
cost-efficient manner, the Client sought independent
assistance to assess the organizational environment
and develop a strategic plan. |
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Ventures in Healthcare conducted the following
two-phased engagement:
Phase I - Inventory Assessment
This phase focused on obtaining an understanding
of the current environment and constructed the foundation
for the Strategic Plan, included the following steps:
- Step 1 – Project Kick-off: Identified
and finalized the departmental interviews that will
be conducted for the purpose of developing the assessment
and understanding of the current environment.
- Step 2 – Conduct Interviews: Conducted
interviews as defined above, including those with
physician staff and Board of Trustees members.
- Step 3 – Acquire Information: Acquired
from the Client, relevant historical information that
could have bearing on planned strategic initiatives,
including budgets, Disaster Plan, vendor contracts
and regulatory compliance efforts.
- Step 4 – Provide Initial Feedback:
Aft–er the interviews were completed and data
acquired, a Phase I document summary was developed
and presented to accomplish the objectives indicated
below:
- Obtain concurrence on a baseline from which
the Strategy will be developed,
- Provide a relative comparison of the information
technology environment at the Client as compared
with other hospitals, and
- Begin establishing priorities for new applications
and understand budgetary constraints as a foundation
for Phase Two.
Phase II - Needs Identification and Tactical Plan
Phase II concentrated on the development of the needs
assessment and a Strategic Plan for meeting those
needs.
- Step 5 - Determination of Major Unmet Needs:
As a result of the baseline data gathering and general
knowledge of the marketplace, major unmet needs for
incremental IT support for each of the areas reviewed
were identified and prioritized and categorized as
either new acquisitions, replacements, upgrades, and/or
optimization to the current environment.
- Step 6 - Development of Specific IT Initiatives
and Plan Development: Based on the data gathering
performed, unmet IT needs, discussions with the incumbent
HIS vendor, and marketplace knowledge, a prioritized
list of IT initiatives to address each of the areas
of focus was developed. For each recommended initiative,
the components indicated below were provided.
- Capital costs (estimates)
- Operating costs (estimates)
- User and IS staffing requirements
- Implementation timeframe and prerequisites
- Potential benefits and risks
- Step 7 - Presentation of Final Draft of Client's
Information Technology Strategic Plan: A presentation
of the final draft of the IT Strategic Plan was developed
that included all findings, conclusions, and recommendations.
The Plan was reviewed and approved by the Client's
administrative leadership and then presented to the
Board of Trustees.
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300-bed Suburban Hospital,
New York |
Project Management:
HIPAA
Privacy Rule Preparation |
| With
HIPAA Privacy compliance about six months away,
this hospital sought assistance to coordinate and
accelerate compliance initiatives. |
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- Conducted Privacy gap analysis; used it as a basis
for subsequent project initiatives
- Assembled a HIPAA Core Group as the decision making
body for compliance efforts; convened weekly meetings;
brought Core Group up-to-date on HIPAA issues.
- Drafted to-do lists for all Core Group members,
for weekly meeting updates
- Planned convened and provided all documentation
for regular Core Group status meetings
- Organized and oversaw task forces to address and
seek solutions for the leading compliance issues,
such as:
- Policy & Procedure review and update
- PHI disposal
- Staff education
- Access
- PC/fax/e-mail issues
- HIPAA compliance cost assessments
- Business Associate management
- Drafted letters and policies and procedures as requested
- Organized Contracts Office to manage Business Associate
agreements
- Arranged on-going compliance management
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| Multi-office Outpatient
Medical Practice, New Jersey |
Project Management:
Network Design and Implementation;
Selection of new Practice Management (PM) and Electronic
Medical Record (EMR) system;
PM and EMR Implementations |
| Multi-office,
extended hour family practice and urgent care center
sought to increase communication efficiencies among
the offices and improve collections with managed
care organizations and third party payers by implementing
an electronic network across all campuses and enabling
internet and e-mail capabilities. The practice also
sought to replace its aged practice management system
with a state-of-the art product to improve practice
management capabilities and prepare for clinical
documentation. Once the new PM and EMR systems were
selected, the practice sought project management
assistance for the implementation of the systems. |
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Ventures in Healthcare conducted the following
two-phased engagement:
Network Installation
- Conducted needs assessment and operational design
for network implementation
- Oversaw all network implementation activities and
assured delivery
as per contract
- Coordinated hardware purchase, implementation and
all vendor activities
PM/EMR System Selection
- Provided marketplace assessment of practice management/clinical
documentation vendors
- Conducted systems selection engagement including:
- Developed Request For Proposal
- Analyzed vendor responses
- Arranged and facilitated on-site vendor demonstrations,
site visits,
and reference checking
- Worked with client to narrow field to two finalist
vendors
- Developed negotiating criteria; facilitated contract
negotiations
and selection of vendor-of-choice
Implementation Project Management
- Administered and oversaw the project plan; worked
with the
vendor to develop meaningful, aggressive, but reasonable
milestone dates consistent with the Practices's objectives
and expectations
- Assigned tasks to project participants, including
the development
of weekly to-do lists for each member; tracked progress
of all tasks assigned; followed up with project participants
regarding
outstanding deliverables
- Planned convened and provided all documentation
for regular implementation committee status meetings
- Managed vendor relationship; escalated unresolved
issues within
the vendor organization as needed
- Facilitated establishment of trainer and end-user
training teams
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| Rural Healthcare Provider,
Kansas |
Development of an Information
Technology Strategic Plan |
| Acute
and long-term rural health care provider was dissatisfied
with the aging administrative software and support
provided by a distant host hospital and was also
interested in deploying clinical applications that
it did not have. The hospital leadership, as well
as the health system to which it belonged, sought
to better understand its needs as well as the cost
implications of deploying its own system. |
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- Organized project
- Identified interviews to be conducted
- Determined status of the Information Systems
Steering Committee
- Assembled existing documentation
- Conducted environmental assessment and systems reviews
- Met with leadership to understand organizational
priorities
- Met with host hospital to further understand
current offerings, systems issues and potential
for on-going relationship
- Conducted interviews and reviewed documentation
to assess:
- Software and hardware
- Network environment
- Operational issues (Care delivery models,
staffing, decision support)
- Staffing & Governance
- Budgets and financial and clinical reporting
- Planned systems acquisitions
- Determine Unmet Needs
- Prioritized based on need
- Identified as New, Replacement, Upgrade, and/or
Optimization
- Development of Specific IT Initiatives and Plan
Development
- Develop and present alternative approaches for
addressing and satisfying current IT issues
- For each viable approach presented the following
detail will be provided:
- Capital costs (estimates)
- Operating costs (estimates)
- User and IT staffing requirements
- Implementation timeframe and prerequisites
- Potential benefits and risks
- Developed IT Plan including a final presentation
that includes all findings, conclusions and recommendations
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| 275-bed Suburban Hospital,
Connecticut |
Implementation Project
Management:
IDXrad v.10 Radiology
Information System |
| After
over a year of effort, the Hospital could not complete
the implementation of its IDXrad system. The project
suffered from an inexperienced vendor team (v.10
was not widely deployed at the time), extensive
staff turnover, and ineffective project management. |
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- Administered and oversaw the project plan; worked
with the vendor to develop meaningful, aggressive,
but reasonable milestone dates consistent with the
hospital's objectives and expectations
- Once the project plan was prepared, stayed ahead
of the plan; anticipating issues before the tasks
were due to be completed so that impediments to timely
task completion were minimized
- Assigned tasks to project participants, including
the development of weekly to-do lists for each member;
tracked progress of all tasks assigned; followed up
with project participants regarding outstanding deliverables
- Planned convened and provided all documentation
for regular implementation committee status meetings
- Convened regular senior executive level steering
committee meetings including presentation of formal
status report
- Managed vendor relationship; escalated unresolved
issues within the vendor organization as needed
- Coordinated interface development
- Coordinated delivery of vendor contracted software
customizations
- Coordinated simultaneous efforts of the following
sub-groups: IT Department's applications group, infrastructure
group, interface group, and vendor
- Assessed hospital resource requirements to assure
that planned tasks were accomplished within the assigned
timeframes; and escalated resource concerns within
the hospital
- Established trainer and end-user training teams;
provided oversight to training activities
- Provided oversight to policy and procedure revisions
to accommodate new system
- Provided input as needed to workflow redesign workgroup
- Structured unit, application, and integrated testing
- Delivered a successful on-time go-live!
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