The Perpetual Pilot Syndrome: Why it Happens and How to Avoid it for Healthcare Business Success

SUMMARY:

• Pilots are important to achieve healthcare business success.
• Although pilots maybe successful, they may not help gain widespread use
• Need to avoid endless pilot projects (aka Perpetual Pilot; Pilot-itis, Pilot-emia, etc)

REVIEW:

How Pilots Can Help

• Provide the business with credibility, client partnerships and trust
• Learn what you do not know
• Determine if the solution actually delivers the touted outcomes
• Helps clients gain comfort with effectiveness prior to committing resources for widespread use
• Above benefits gained without a large drawn out randomized controlled trial

Why Pilots Do Not Succeed

• Doing a pilot for the wrong purpose:

1. Pilots are not a substitute for product design

• Lack of an appropriate plan

1. “Let us try it for a while” is NOT a pilot
2. Need to define: goal; roles & responsibilities; workflows
3. Metrics not clearly established

• Solution does not actually solve the intended problem

1. Disconnect exists between the solution and user expectations
2. If the pilot only focused on the low hanging fruit, it has avoided the tough issues

• Pilot project was inadequately resourced

1. People
2. Capital
3. Commitment
4. Data collection time

A Successful Pilot Not Leading to Clinical Adoption

• Did not change behaviors

1. If the pilot concluded before new behaviors become habits, reverting to the old habits will reappear
2. Especially true if pilot was conducted during a “slow period” of work – old habits will reappear during hectic times.

• Success metrics were not clearly established and documented up front
• The “Perpetual Pilot Syndrome”

1. Additional pilots after a successful one can actually inhibit growth
2. Pilot is allowed to drag on too long
3. Lack of initial clarity as to “What happens after the pilot”

How to Avoid The “Perpetual Pilot Syndrome”

• Keep the Goal in mind:

1. Client Goal: First hand validation the solution works in their environment
2. Business Goal: Gain commitment to broad deployment when the desired clinical and financial outcomes are delivered.

• Avoid Open Ended pilots
• Avoid Perpetual Pilots by partnering with client to:

1. Agree to additional deployments in phases
2. Establish clear success milestones per phase up front
3. Expand to next phase only once agreed upon milestones are met

• Agree on process for resolution if program not successful

CONCLUSIONS:

• Pilots are necessary to determine if your solution delivers the acknowledge outcomes.
• Clients want to ensure of the proof of concept before committing resources to widespread implementations
• This can lead to a disconnect between the business and the end user, resulting in the Perpetual Pilot Syndrome
• Many healthcare businesses are unable to gain pilot success, or convert pilot success to clinical acceptance and widespread use

Erkan Hassan, Pharm.D., FCCM is a clinician and transformational healthcare executive? with 20+ years experience developing innovative solutions to improve clinical outcomes, enhance provider experience and increase revenue.

Dr. Hassan aids health systems and providers by making telemedicine a reality as well as improving the process of difficult clinical challenges using evidence based clinical data creating and optimizing intelligent ecosystems to generate validated patient centered clinical and financial outcomes.

You can reach Erkan at [email protected]