How can you avoid common mistakes when implementing healthcare technology?

Regulatory Compliance: To be at par with industry standards of regulation and compliance on a global level, ensure that your tech is open to market internationally. A common strategy mistake usually involves restricting regulatory checks to the bare minimum, until a significant amount of troubleshooting is required. Instead, adopt a proactive approach and stay abreast of compliance updates that your immediate governing body mandates. User Centric Design: While new tech is ambitious and may attract investors, it is often overly complicated and gruff for consumers (such as patients and medical professionals) to incorporate into their day-to-day applications.

Test.Test.Test. And test again. It is important to find your critical groups then test in vacuum and real time to determine if the technology chosen works for your team.

Assess what you want from the System. Do not attempt replicate the way current system works, focus on the output. There will be learning curve. Allocate sufficient time to do parallels and do not hesitate to fail a few attempts. Must so load test, meaning allocate all systems tested like you are live. Once past, will give you real relief at go live.

Write a clear problem statement that describes the current situation and problem(s) you want to solve. Obtain baseline measurements of critical KPIs so that you will have “before and after” measurements. That way you can determine if your project was completely successful, partially successful or not successful at all.

Engage your organization's Project Management Office and Information Technology team at the beginning of the process in order to help guide you through vendor selection and contracting. In my experience as a healthcare project manager I have seen many examples of systems being purchased and contracts signed by hospital departments without PMO and IT involvement which turned out to be much more expensive to implement than the vendor said it would be. When the PMO and IT teams are engaged at the start, they can work with the department and vendor to discuss the nuances of the environment to design a workable technical architecture, as well as help build a scope document that details goals and needs, and create accurate budget estimates.

I could not agree more, collaboration with key consumers is an absolute necessity. Anyone who touches a potential new product or solution should not only have the opportunity, but should be encouraged to provide feedback/input.

The probability of a successful project is greatly improved if the end users are involved and invested in the project. You will need a champion from the impacted team(s) to help smooth out the inevitable hiccups that will occur.

In my experience as a healthcare project manager, it is critical to get all of these stakeholders involved from the beginning of a project: end users (clinical staff and physicians), department management, IT, clinical engineering, vendors, and help desk/user support. Make sure all stakeholders know what is expected from them and the time commitment needed for design, testing, status meetings, etc. Clinical staff need to plan their time months in advance so as not to affect patient care.

Whatever amount of end user training you think will be needed should increased to account for staff turnover and other unforeseen circumstances. Plan on initial training to take place prior to GoLive, support for the GoLive event, and then follow up training 4 to 6 weeks post GoLive. The followup training can be either remedial review, advanced features and functionality training or a combination of both.

In addition to what has already been mentioned regarding user training, here are some other suggestions: 1.) During the course of the project, designate some clinical users as "superusers". These individuals would be able to assist the other users in their department and help train new users. 2.) Involve the support staff in the project. The individuals who will be supporting the system after go live (IT, Clinical Engineering, Help Desk, etc.) The more they are involved in the project, the better they will be able to support it. 3.) Make documentation a priority! User documentation, knowledge base articles for the help desk, IT documentation (architecture documentation, "as-built" diagrams, etc.)

In my experience, testing is always critical, especially in healthcare settings. Healthcare systems, in my opinion, are the most complex in terms of integration/interfaces. Many systems need to communicate with any new application that is being installed. Communication between EMR, scheduling, medical devices, physician reporting, billing, and financial systems require extensive testing. you need extensive involvement from clinical users and staff from other departments to develop test scripts to follow during integration and user testing. Every function of the application being installed must be tested, as well as every option or exam type within each function must be tested. All upstream and downstream systems must be included in testing.

In my experience if you focus on the “why” and leverage appropriate change management methodologies, people using the technology will be more open to the change. Remember technology impacts peoples day to day experiences and without the necessary communication strategy, people will find paths of least resistance. Those paths often do not align with the goals of the technology. Listen, communicate, and create the “why”

As technology use is planned it is critical to understand that the paths for technology implementation are subsystems of the overall system structure. Technology should be developed to support and improve each of these subsystems by reducing complexity, not adding complexity. These structures should integrate other subsystems to provide seamless exchange of needed information and actions.

To avoid common mistakes in implementing healthcare technology, start with thorough needs analysis, ensuring the technology aligns with both provider and patient requirements. Prioritize user-friendly designs to facilitate smooth adoption. Involve end-users in the testing phase for practical feedback. Additionally, provide comprehensive training and support for staff to ensure proper usage. Regularly review and update the technology to keep up with evolving healthcare needs and maintain robust data security measures to protect patient information. This approach ensures a successful, sustainable technology implementation in healthcare settings.