The Three A’s of Selecting a Downtime Solution

In all different downtime scenarios, time and money, as well as staff and patient safety can be easily compromised. In today’s world, efficiency and accuracy are of upmost importance when it comes to medical care. Planned downtimes take a lot of time and preparation to continue running day to day operations safely and smoothly. Unplanned downtimes can leave you debilitated and vulnerable without a solution in place. Downtime Solutions are key to keeping businesses up and running without compromising productivity and safety. There are many different downtime solutions to consider, but how does one decide which of these to adopt? We recommend considering the three A’s when selecting a downtime solution: Availability, Adaptability, and Accountability.

The three A’s to consider when selecting a Downtime Solution:

1) Availability: The most common HCIS downtimes are planned.  However, most downtime solutions are designed for planned and unplanned HCIS downtimes.  What’s commonly overlooked when selecting a downtime solution is whether or not it addresses technical planned or unplanned downtimes.  Technical downtimes are the nightmare CIO’s and IT personnel may encounter in their professional life.  Though extremely rare, addressing technical downtime is a must when considering different downtime solutions.  Technical downtimes happen when you lose your internal network to specific locations or even facility wide.  Downtime solutions need to address this with either local “stand-alone” downtime PC’s and/or cellular cloud solutions.  Selecting a solution that meets all downtime possibilities will keep your user’s ready for patient care and keep senior management from asking why you weren’t ready.

2) Adaptability: Think about using a software solution 3-5 times per year.  How familiar is that software going to be to you?  Downtime solutions are used so infrequently the typical user will have limited memory of its usage within 3 weeks.  Having worked with downtime solutions for over 20 years, the most common complaint is familiarity.  The key factor in a downtime solution’s successful adaptability is ease of use and familiarity.  If a downtime solution is easily accessible during HCIS or technical downtimes, and looks and functions like your uptime solution, your adaptability could be 100%.

3) Accountability: With the goal of ease of use for your downtime solution you don’t want to sacrifice usage tracking abilities.  When we talk about a HCIS downtime it’s not typically a problem with tracking user access since most will use HCIS or AD credentials to log on.  But what about technical downtimes when HCIS or AD isn’t available?  It’s important to make sure your downtime solutions have comprehensive audits to track patient content access during all types of downtime.

We at The HCI Solution trust that if you select a downtime solution using the three A’s outlined, you can continue to run operations smoothly without compromising the high standard of care everyone expects and strives for. The HCI Solution’s answer to this problem is the ContinuITy™ Downtime Portal.  Continuity Downtime Portal was created in a hospital with their needs in mind.  We encourage you to explore and utilize the resources we have provided below. Don’t allow your workflow to be negatively impacted by any kind of downtime, be prepared and be safe.

To learn about The HCI Solution’s ContinuITy™ Downtime Portal CLICK HERE

CONTACT US to set up a free demo at a time convenient for you.

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Manage Reporting Workflow with DefinITy

In my previous post regarding MPI consolidation, we observed how a conversion/upgrade effort, though an intensive undertaking, presents many opportunities to improve our organization and workflow. One of these opportunities is how we can improve our data governance, specifically the process of evaluating and planning our reporting needs. This is most apparent during a platform change, and that will be the use case I’ll be focusing on, but the same considerations can be applied whether we are in the process of upgrading our HCIS or during the maintenance cycle.

Reporting is central to our day-to-day operations and long-term planning, and over time we accrue hundreds of essential reports, distributed throughout our HCIS and depended on by our multi-disciplined user base. When planning for an upgrade, many of these reports will need to be rewritten in light of enhanced functionality and changes present in the new system. In 2018, our development partner Halifax Health completed their upgrade from MEDITECH Client Server to MEDITECH Expanse. Planning for this upgrade, Halifax needed a way to evaluate the full scope of their accumulated reports and effectively determine the best way to consume the report governance elephant.

We begin by answering a series of questions, based on our particular upgrade effort. Such as: Exactly how many reports do we currently have? How can this number be reduced? Out of these reports, we want to determine relevance, and if relevant, then priority and upgrade requirements. What type of report is it, i.e. NPR Report Writer or Data Repository? Is the application the report references changing platforms (NPR to M-AT)? Does the latest MEDITECH version provide standard functionality that makes the report obsolete? Once these questions have been answered, we can begin to delegate the individual reports to internal or external resources that will be responsible for rebuilding and testing the reports in the new MEDITECH platform.

DefinITy is our report tracking and governance solution that was born out of Halifax Health’s planning and analysis effort. DefinITy facilitates the upgrade process by providing a means to easily track and manage the steps from report discovery and analysis through testing and finalizing the new report version. Existing report metadata and usage criteria are loaded into the DefinITy database, and then assigned an owner, i.e. the user responsible for determining the relevance of the report. Report owners can then manage their list of reports, by canceling reports no longer needed, or confirming the request for an upgrade of the report, adding any additional details or requirements. Requested reports are then assigned to a resource for tracking the completion of the new version of the report.

Sound planning and consideration ensure that we make the most of the opportunities presented to us during an upgrade effort. Using a tool to manage and track the report update process in phases, allows us to focus on the upgrade as a whole while delegating out the details to the correct resources. To assist sites with this process, The HCI Solution offers a complementary report analysis, providing a high-level overview of a site’s current reporting footprint and usage, and highlighting those reports that will be impacted by platform upgrades. We also offer a full suite of Data Services, in the event that you are looking for external resources to assist with your reporting needs, regardless of your MEDITECH version.

Please feel free to check out our no-obligation Request a Quote Form

To learn more about The HCI Solution’s DefinITy  CLICK HERE.

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Why SyncSolve® Perfectly Complements MEDITECH’s Corporate Management Software (CMS)

HOW EFFECTIVE IS YOUR MEDITECH SYSTEM?

Utilizing your Electronic Health Record’s (EHR’s) TEST system is the best way to ensure that issues with dictionary, parameter, or new software changes are discovered prior to introducing patient safety or other issues into your LIVE EHR environment. However, your EHR’s TEST system is only truly effective in catching problems if it behaves the same way as your LIVE EHR. That means putting effort into supporting a proper dictionary management process. Whatever dictionaries are built and edited in the LIVE system need to have the same changes made in the TEST system and vice versa. This is easier said than done. Manually re-keying dictionary edits in two different systems is an arduous process filled with opportunities to introduce human error. These errors can eventually lead to more time spent troubleshooting issues that arise from TEST and LIVE systems not behaving the same. Let’s learn why SyncSolve® complements MEDITECH’s Corporate Management Software (CMS) so perfectly.

CORPORATE MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE (CMS)

MEDITECH customers are receiving the MEDITECH CMS solution with new Expanse implementations. The CMS system was first developed for larger corporate healthcare organizations and Integrated Delivery Networks (IDNs). It was a way for large organizations to standardize their EHR content across all facilities. Dictionaries could be built in one “standards” HCIS, and CMS background jobs would propagate those dictionary edits to target corporate HCIS. One great feature is that the system allows certain fields and certain dictionaries to be “localized.” For instance, it would not make sense to standardize and centrally control the location dictionary. There are a lot of dictionaries and fields that are very specific to designated facilities.

CMS not only keeps disparate MEDITECH facility EHRs synchronized, it is also used to keep the separate MEDITECH TEST and LIVE system’s synchronized. This is the primary reason why MEDITECH started offering it to smaller organizations with Expanse. CMS is a big step in the right direction for dictionary management. However, it is not the be-all end-all. There are still some challenges with the CMS system. Here are some limitations:

  • A lot of dictionaries are not controlled/propagated by CMS.
  • The full automation of CMS is a positive, but there are times when more granular control and analysis is desired.
  • When customers are going through a MEDITECH update, propagation from one MEDITECH release to another is not possible.
  • Sometimes things do not sync as intended due to CMS or other MEDITECH software problems. These issues can be difficult to detect without an additional dictionary compare tool.

WHY SYNCSOLVE® COMPLIMENTS MEDITECH’S CMS

The HCI Solution has several customers that utilize both CMS and SyncSolve® for their dictionary management needs. Why? SyncSolve® is 100% CMS compatible – dictionaries that are synced by SyncSolve® to the “standards” HCIS are propagated to all CMS target HCIS’s, even dictionaries from other MEDITECH releases. SyncSolve® can be used to compare any dictionary from one MEDITECH system to another, even across Universes! CMS does not synchronize every dictionary. SyncSolve® synchronizes nearly every dictionary. Here are just a few of the many examples of dictionaries that can be synced by SyncSolve® that cannot be synced by CMS:

  • Person Dictionary
  • Canned text
  • Menu/Procedure Access
  • CWS Resource
  • Oncology Treatment Plan

When MEDITECH customers are going through an update, SyncSolve® can synchronize between software releases, where CMS cannot. Some of our customers even use SyncSolve® to compare dictionaries between HCIS’s to make sure that CMS is functioning properly. SyncSolve® provides much more granular control than CMS does. It allows you to sync specific fields within specific dictionaries, something that CMS does not do. It allows users to create very specific use-cases for hospital initiatives.

UNIQUE FEATURES OF THE HCI SOLUTION’S SYNCSOLVE® APPLICATION

  • Available in MAGIC, CS, M-AT 6.x, Expanse
  • Compare dictionaries across databases, HCIS’s, and even UNV’s
  • View discrepancies field by field
  • View dependent dictionary deficiencies
  • Generate detailed work lists and reports
  • Launch directly to dictionary Enter/Edit screens from work lists
  • Schedule and automate dictionary maintenance
  • Monitor dictionaries for changes
  • Auto-synchronize dictionary and dependent dictionary differences
  • Build custom use cases
  • Manage access controls for decentralization
  • Copy dictionaries and parameters
  • Distribute reports by email

THE PERFECT MARRIAGE IN THE DICTIONARY MANAGEMENT FAMILY

CMS is a great tool for automating the propagation of dictionary edits. It goes a long way in helping to keep your TEST and LIVE systems synchronized. However, it does not cover everything. SyncSolve® will fill in those gaps. SyncSolve® is the perfect tool to help complete specific use-case projects along with CMS, like building new assessments in TEST prior to syncing them to “standards”, or building users in LIVE and then syncing them to TEST. It is also useful for migrating previous release TEST dictionaries to your new TEST release ring, for those dictionaries that MEDITECH could not copy. Hopefully now you see why SyncSolve® perfectly complements MEDITECH’s Corporate Management Software (CMS).

DON’T HAVE CMS?

If you don’t have MEDITECH’s CMS system, then SyncSolve® is the only real option for you, that truly works. SyncSolve® is available for MAGIC, C/S, 6.x, and Expanse.

To learn more about The HCI Solution’s SyncSolve®­­­­  CLICK HERE.

CONTACT US to schedule a demo and see SyncSolve® in action.

 


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Upgrading MEDITECH and Consolidating our Master Patient Index (MPI)

As the HCIS landscape shifts, we are often finding ourselves involved in major upgrade and conversion endeavors on behalf of our customers. Whether upgrading to the latest version of MEDITECH, or moving to a completely new platform, our sites are confronted with a host of challenges. While this threatens to be a frustrating process, it also presents unique opportunities to improve inefficient workflows, normalize dictionaries, retire obsolete reporting methods or legacy applications, and ensure that the mistakes made in the current system are not inherited during the upgrade process. Preemptive decisions need to be made, regarding resource allocation and timelines to ensure goals can be accomplished at the appropriate stage of the conversion process. When upgrading MEDITECH, consolidating our Master Patient Index (MPI) should be taken into consideration.

Over time, an MPI database inevitably accrues duplicate records, due to misidentification or workflow errors, and if we hesitate before starting our reconciliation effort, we can easily miss the window of opportunity to move forward with a clean MPI. We all understand the importance of eliminating duplicate records to ensure the data integrity of each patient’s medical history, but there are other considerations. Improved operational efficiency and cost reduction are major factors. Missing this window will complicate the process of reconciling duplicates in the future. For example, when upgrading to a new version of MEDITECH we often need to maintain a historical link with our previous systems. After conversion, any duplicates merged in the new HCIS will also need to be merged in the prior HCIS to maintain the accuracy of this historical link, but if the records are merged prior to conversion, this extra step is unnecessary.

It is important not to minimize the effort involved with the resolution process, as this is the primary reason for missed timelines. There is no fully automated solution that will ensure there is no risk of creating additional errors, such as patients merged in error. Our focus needs to be on finding ways to be as efficient as possible during the resolution process, and on approaching the problem in a way that maximizes the results of our time spent on each task, without creating additional risk.

Our response to the challenges posed by the duplication resolution effort is our MPI MergeIT™ application. MergeIT™ integrates with the existing MEDITECH tools used to reconcile duplicates, to enhance and facilitate the process of accelerated resolution, without the risk of an unintended or erroneous merge. MergeIT™ generates customizable worklists of potential duplicates by comparing demographic data at the database level. This lets us prioritize the most likely duplicates and defer the potential duplicates that will need more investigation to a second phase of the process. When a duplicate is identified, it can be immediately handed off to the MEDITECH merge routine, to eliminate any need for redundant manual entry, and to ensure that all values are merged as intended. As the selection criteria is expanded to the second phase, any potential duplicates that are confirmed to be unique, can be permanently filtered from the identification routine, to ensure we never needlessly investigate the same medical record number combination more than once.

The upgrade process does not have to be daunting, and presents many opportunities, but these opportunities can be easily missed if we don’t take initiative and engage the necessary resources early enough in the process. To ensure we can consolidate our MPI prior to conversion, and that we are not creating additional work for ourselves and inheriting the corruption present in our current system, we need to begin well before the conversion is underway.

CONTACT US to schedule a Demo.

To learn about The HCI Solution’s MPI MergeIT™  CLICK HERE.

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Engineering Concierge

We all equate a concierge to a go to person in the hotel we are staying that direct us to a restaurant, pharmacy, or department store when needed. They help us to get where we want to go with the resources needed to accomplish what we want to do in the time we have to do it.

Community hospitals have pressing issues. With interoperability, interface engines, complex reporting, software development, and the use of custom integration to ease workflow burden; community hospitals need more diverse technical resources than ever before to address vastly different functions.

Technical employees can be exceedingly difficult to recruit. Many managers get caught in a repeating cycle of recruiting, vetting, testing, and hiring. With different skill sets needed at different times, you might never have the correct individual employed for those pressing initiatives.

Could a team of virtual experts that possess the myriad of technical requirements and experience be the answer? Would you call on them to help? If you needed 10 hours a month of help at a very competitive rate for one year, would you sign up?

Engineering Concierge is the idea of the future. Gone is the idea of one individual to handle one set of challenges. Engineering Concierge is one point of contact for all technical services, even the most diverse skill set that might not typically be part of your team. As your needs change, let the solution remain the same.

To learn about The HCI Solution’s Engineering Concierge Services  CLICK HERE.



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