On Best Practices

10 best practices for project success

Posted by on

It’s the final few weeks before our major Epic go live at the University of Vermont Health Network on November 1st. Yes, we have some parts of the project still in yellow or red status as of our 30 day Go Live canstockphoto19779100 (1) gearsReadiness Assessment (GLRA). But the majority are green (on track) or blue (complete).  I’m seeing many best practices that have us on a path towards success. Individual and team behaviors and practices that are worth sharing:

Flexibility – On any given day, you don’t know what issues you might need to deal with or what meeting you’ll have to add to your calendar.  Be willing to adjust as needed throughout the day and know what can wait for another day.

Raising issues – Don’t be afraid to raise issues that need resolution. Don’t assume someone else has more time or knowledge to handle the issue – be willing to take ownership if you can.

Utility players – You need generalists who can be put into a variety of situations to temporarily help. If you are one of these people, don’t hesitate to raise your hand when you see gaps.

Step up and lead – Leadership takes many forms. Even if you may feel unready, don’t be afraid to step in and fill a leadership gap if needed.

Cross coverage – Being dependent on one person’s knowledge and skills can create delays when that person is unexpectedly unavailable. Knowing who you can hand off to and having confidence in that person stepping in is critical to projects staying on schedule. Continue reading →

Time to stop and smell the roses – part 2

Posted by on

Alternatively, I could call this post “take time for leaf peeping”! I have had the good fortune to spend a lot of time on the road in northern New England this past summer – something I had not done in all the years canstockphoto872429 (1) fall colorsI lived in the Boston area. New England is now approaching its peak fall glory. The 5-hour weekly drive from Providence to Burlington for my interim engagement was quite spectacular this week. Yet the colors were probably only a third of what they will be in another week or two.

A few years ago, I wrote a post called “Time to stop and smell the roses”. I commented then on the need to create routines that include think time, reading, reflection, relaxing and taking care of ourselves.

We spend our days in meetings or looking at computer screens. We spend many hours when not at work looking at our smart phones. But we don’t spend enough time appreciating the beauty surrounding us. When I’m doing that long drive each week, there’s not much I can do other than look at the scenery and of course the road! A few calls maybe and plenty of listening to the news, but I am always looking as I drive.

As our team at University of Vermont Health Network (UVMHN) approaches the big Epic go live in just over 30 days, it is important that we take care of ourselves and stay healthy. For me, a key component of self-care is taking time to slow down and enjoy the beauty around me.

When driving my weekly commute or my daily commute from the hotel to my office, or looking out the window from one of our conference rooms (we have an incredible view of the Adirondack Mountains), or walking along Lake Champlain at sunset, I am reminded of the beauty surrounding us. We are all working very long days and focused on a successful go live November 1st. But taking time to enjoy this incredible changing of the colors is something I will do when I can. All too soon the yellows, oranges and reds will be gone, and we will be left with bare trees and brown landscape and then snow. For this first official week of fall, I’ll focus on the beauty of this season and try not to think of the snow to come.

Related Posts:

Time to stop and smell the roses

The 6 Rs of summer

Take time to reboot

Do you know your big rocks?

Project in trouble? Some dos and don’ts

Posted by on

If you work in IT, you’ve probably seen your share of projects that need help getting back on track. I could share a lot of stories from my many years in IT in multiple organizations. The complexity and scale of what canstockphoto12827499 (1) dowe do in IT continues to amaze me. Drawing on that experience, I want to share my tips on what to do and not to do if you find yourself taking on a troubled project.

What to do if you want to ensure success:

  • First, stop the churn
  • Get up to speed on the project scope, issues, and challenges as quickly as possible
  • Seek to understand enough of the past to inform the future
  • Focus on getting the project back on track and moving forward
  • Figure out who’s who, what their respective roles are and who owns what
  • Assume positive intent
  • Show respect and gratitude for all involved
  • Ensure all issues are surfaced, assigned to an owner for resolution, and tracked
  • Remove obstacles as they arise
  • Be transparent with leadership about the status and issues
  • Track progress using key metrics
  • Use daily huddles to ensure team members are on the same page, focused, and raising issues
  • Manage expectations for all involved and impacted
  • Document decisions so you don’t have to revisit or rehash them later
  • Consider what levers you can pull such as timeline, resources, budget, or scope
  • When you can’t change the timeline, be ruthless about scope changes
  • Keep calm – reduce team stress, diffuse conflict, and avoid finger pointing

And some tips on what not to do: Continue reading →

Working together, we improve people’s lives

Posted by on

That’s the vision of the University of Vermont Health Network (UVMHN) where I’m currently serving as the interim Chief Technology Officer. It’s a simple but powerful statement and a great reminder of the canstockphoto10098870 (1) working togetherimportance of “we” and the work we do together. With our major Epic go live less than two months away, we are constantly reminded what a critical foundational  piece the common, integrated EHR is for the health network. No pressure!

I described the scope of our Epic project in my post “Crunch time and why IT matters” and shared stories from our 90-day Go Live Readiness Assessment (GLRA) in my post “IT takes a village”. Our 60-day GLRA was a few days ago. Dr. John Brumsted, UVMHN CEO, and the presidents from the hospitals and the medical group kicked off the day thanking everyone involved and describing what the common, integrated EHR will mean for our patients. And as Dr. Brumsted noted, the Epic project is the biggest undertaking to date for the organization as an integrated network.

UVMHN is not the first nor the last organization on the journey to create an integrated care delivery system to serve the patients in a region.  To be a truly integrated network, common values and strong relationships are key. Continue reading →

Never too busy to take care of ourselves

Posted by on

I have been impressed with my University of Vermont Health Network colleagues this summer on many fronts. Not the least of which is their level of physical activity. All summer I’ve heard about long bike rides, YourHealthYourChoicehiking, kayaking, mountain climbing and even a relay race overnight through the woods, called Ragnar.

They have motivated me to get back into my own workout regimen. Something I put on the back burner for three months. The last time I’d been to the gym was the week before I started this interim engagement in late May. I’ve been walking every night for 20-30 minutes but that is not the same as cardio and weight training at the gym. Classic story – you get busy and something must give. In my case, it was my workout routine.

Happy to say I started back at the gym two weeks ago and have worked it into my weekend and weeknight routine. Does it mean a few emails might not get answered some evening? Yes. But it’s critical to maintain balance and take care of ourselves – especially during busy periods. And especially when you are away from home in a hotel room each night where it’s all too easy to work until you turn the lights out for the night.

If one of my busiest colleagues who is routinely doing email very late at night can get up early and do a 20 mile bike ride before work, then I can make time to get to the gym a few nights a week.

We are about 60 days from our big Epic go live on November 1. It will only get more stressful and busier from here on, not less. As a leader, helping others maintain balance is best done if we too maintain balance in our lives. Continue reading →

Press 1 for… Press 2 for…

Posted by on

Does hearing this cause anxiety and impatience? Or do you think, great, I’ll soon be talking to the right person to help me? I am usually impatient when it comes to getting help with something. I find it frustrating canstockphoto20456258to listen to a long list of phone options, to wait for someone to be available, then get bounced around between call center staff and repeat my information multiple times.

But call centers and automated attendant systems are our new reality. There will be more use of artificial intelligence (AI) and Chatbots in the future. If designed properly, the customer experience can be a positive one.

I admit that I quickly forget the experiences that are smooth and positive. But I remember the ones that aren’t. I had one of those not so positive experiences this week.

While driving on the freeway last Friday, something flew off a truck and hit my windshield creating a crescent like crack the size of an orange. Not something to ignore and put off.

Making the call to my insurance company and being routed to the auto glass service they partner with involved getting redirected to different numbers, providing the same information multiple times, and still not getting the result I needed. In the end, I got it worked out when I contacted the service provider directly.

This not so positive experience reinforced how important it is for us to design the optimal flow and support structure for our command center (a call center on steroids) during our upcoming Epic go live at the University of Vermont Health Network. Customer service encounters in some form are an everyday experience. They should be easy, quick, and have a positive outcome. Continue reading →

What’s the why?

Posted by on

Yet another best practice from my IT colleagues at the University of Vermont Health Network (UVMHN). We emphasize “the why” in all our work and communications. From the updates on our upcoming Epic go canstockphoto4362942 (1) the whylive to agenda topics to user communications about scheduled downtimes, explaining the why helps everyone understand the context and reasons for what we do.

Our University of Vermont Medical Center (UVMMC) Chief Nursing Officer, Kate Fitzpatrick, reconnected us all to “the why” again at our IT All Staff meeting this week. With about 70 days left until go live, she spoke to the staff who are working long hours to implement a common, integrated EHR throughout the network.

She drew on the stories that were part of the Green Mountain Care Board Certificate of Need (CON) presentation when UVMHN first got the project approved.

Those stories were like those of every other healthcare system with a regional reach that cares for their patient population through integrated and coordinated services provided by an academic medical center and community hospitals. A common patient health record accessible by clinicians at all care locations.

I remember when my daughters were very young. Continue reading →

IT takes a village

Posted by on

GLRA is an acronym recognized by anyone who has been through a large-scale system implementation. Spelled out it is Go Live Readiness Assessment. It is typically done at the 90, 60, and 30-day mark before canstockphoto16594838 (1) hands puzzlea go live. At the University of Vermont Health Network (UVMHN), our 90-day GLRA for Epic Wave 1 was this week.

Dr. John Brumsted, UVMHN CEO, kicked the day off with a powerful message on how important the Epic project is to the network and our patients. He talked about why we are doing this for the region that includes six hospitals, a medical group, many ambulatory locations and home health and hospice in both Vermont and New York. He set realistic expectations saying it wouldn’t be perfect and there would be issues. But he expressed confidence in the project, and everyone involved in making it a success. His presence for a good portion of the morning spoke volumes about his support for this massive initiative and appreciation for all involved. The network CFO and the University of Vermont Medical Center (UVMMC) president, CNO, CMO and VP for Medical Group Operations were also there for a good portion of the morning.

Dr. Adam Buckley, UVMHN CIO, followed Dr. Brumsted by talking about how the journey to a common, fully integrated EHR began back in 2013.  A journey that included a Certificate of Need (CON) review and approval by the Green Mountain Care Board. He too set realistic expectations about how many tickets we’ll have at go live just like every other major EHR implementation around the country and thanked the interdisciplinary team involved.

Lori Boisjoli, UVMHN VP Application Portfolio, then framed the day for everyone. The morning would be focused on the UVMMC with revenue cycle and the full suite of specialty modules going live. The afternoon would be focused on the three affiliate sites where ambulatory clinical and revenue cycle are going live. She highlighted that GLRA is the time to raise any significant issues and risks so project leadership can capture them for follow-up. Continue reading →

Not so secret shopper

Posted by on

If you work at a healthcare system, most likely you get your care there as well. As IT professionals we have an opportunity to be “not so secret shoppers”. In other words, if we tell the clinical and administrative canstockphoto28401496 (1) good or badstaff we have contact with as a patient that we are in IT, we will probably get an earful – both good and bad.

I always make a point of being a not so secret shopper. I want to hear what our users think of the systems we provide and support – good or bad. If I hear about actionable items, I follow-up with the right people afterwards.

This week, I had the chance to be on the patient side of systems. Believe me, I would rather have not been. After a severe toothache all weekend, I called my dentist back home Monday morning. I was hoping to get a prescription for an antibiotic (assuming the pain was due to infection) and something for pain stronger than the over-the-counter ibuprofen and Tylenol I’d been taking. But their protocol was no prescribing unless they saw me. Being hundreds of miles away at my interim engagement, I said that didn’t work for me. So, what was I to do? They said to call my PCP (also hundreds of miles away) or go to an urgent care center.

So, Monday night, I headed off to the University of Vermont Medical Center Urgent Care.  New patient check-in, registration, nurse triage and then to the exam room to wait for a physician to see me.

The wait was minimal at each step and everyone was extremely friendly. At registration I heard enthusiasm about the Epic system coming November 1st and that they would no longer have to use two different systems. The registration clerk said it will be a change and take time getting used to, but that having just one system would be so much better.

With the triage nurse, I realized I didn’t have my medication allergies stored as a note in on my iPhone as I thought I did. I rely on the fact that they are in my medical chart at my healthcare system back home. Continue reading →

“We’re at meeting norms”

Posted by on

That’s a new phrase for me. One I’m still getting used to at my current interim engagement in IT at the University of Vermont Health Network. Said like that, it means it’s 10 minutes to the hour and time to wrap canstockphoto15517676 (1) meeting normsup the meeting. Time for people to shut down any video conferencing, clear the room, take a bio-break and get to their next meeting. And for others to come in and get set up for the next meeting to start right on time. And start on time they do.

This is a meeting discipline that makes a lot of sense and everyone seems to have adapted to it. As the new outsider, I’m still getting used to it and trying my best to conform. Get there on time and if chairing the meeting, wrap up by 10 minutes to the hour (5 minutes if it’s a 30-minute meeting).

Other meeting norms the IT department has established include all agendas and meeting materials available in advance as part of the meeting invite, not sent around separately as emails with attachments. I was told early on that if a meeting doesn’t have an agenda, you’re free to not attend the meeting. While I’ve seen no specific guideline on this, I wouldn’t be surprised. Another way to ensure meetings have purpose and a plan for the time. Continue reading →