Featured in HIMSS Digital Office November 2011 Edition
By Neil Singh and Hjalmer Danielson, Ascendian Healthcare Consulting
Hjalmer Danielson is a member of the HIMSS Digital Office Taskforce
Throughout the course of Meaningful Use (MU) implementations, significant time, energy and money will be invested on successful initiatives. An equivalent investment will be made on failed MU efforts as well. Regardless of your current health IT transformation toward MU, by incorporating a planned MU pilot, your organization can learn from its successes and benefits to an incremental roll-out approach.
Effectively embracing pilot programs can both decrease the risk of your capitalization of the investment and leverage best practices for future health IT investments and implementations. Unlike Alaska's "bridge to nowhere" project, pilot programs have proven to be a foundation for any large scale investment, as they provide greater understanding, repeatability and a methodology for deploying solutions across the organization.When planning your MU pilot programs, consider these critical questions for a successful implementation:
- Which MU requirements will you choose to implement?
- Will you incorporate Eligible Physician (EP) MU certification as well?
- How will existing IT investments be leveraged in the MU effort?
- What procedures and workflows will need modification?
- How will you quantify MU benefits and achieve stakeholder buy-in?
- How will your current MU implementation affect Stages 2 and 3 MU requirements?
For a robust pilot program, consider these four points:
Identify Realistic Goals and create a schedule that can be achieved within a reasonable timeframe. An MU pilot program allows for experimentation and learning, but it's important to stay on task. The pilot will be a valuable validation of your strategy, which will then foster organizational buy-in. Goals for the effort must be clearly articulated and documented and it's important to clearly understand and communicate tasks involved throughout the initiative. Document, develop and update the roll-out blueprint and best practices so they can be re-used.
Create a Cross-Functional MU Team that will ensure cooperation and coordination across your entire enterprise. Hold regular team meetings and updates to expose any lessons learned, or other project risks that, if uncorrected, will delay MU deployment. Practice good resource management by choosing team members based on their abilities and their availability to participate outside of their daily commitments. Determine if outside assistance is required for program management, vendor selection and deployment.
Determining the Appropriate Pilot approach is essential to the greater enterprise goal. Controlled and phased roll-out will ensure implementation success for the enterprise. Identify and develop MU cheerleaders within your organization who are best equipped to support and advocate your MU initiative. Being a highly visible investment project, you must understand the underlying opinions and political complications that exist with MU implementation and discuss them thoroughly.
Quantifying the Results and Benefits of the complete MU pilot to the organization is tangible proof of the investment. Create a method for capturing, managing and communicating implementation data and projects milestones. Compiling and communicating pilot information is an important justification and essential for the next phases in MU initiative and incentives.
Secure your investments in MU with a pilot program. Learn and use the information generated to leverage MU throughout your enterprise implementation. What will your MU pilot look like? Save time, money and resources; invest in a program that will guarantee a success beyond the meaningful use implementation.
