On Best Practices

Press 1 for… Press 2 for…

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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?

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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

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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

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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”

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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 →

Good email practices – lead by example

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Have you ever gone through hundreds of email post vacation trying to catch up and found too many branches on one subject making it difficult to quickly get the full picture on that issue? canstockphoto17451721 (1) email

Have you ever read through a long email trail when you are in a new organization and many different people are weighing in – you don’t know who they are or what they do because there are no signatures, just a first name?

Have you ever had that sense that too much project management is happening via email?

Have you ever tried to find an email but there is no subject or useful subject to search on?

Have you ever lost the thread because the email trail is now on an entirely different topic but still carries the original unrelated subject line?

Have you ever looked at an email trail and wondered why someone doesn’t just pick up the phone or do a quick huddle with the right people to resolve the issue?

If the answer to any of these questions are “yes”, you may share some of my frustrations with managing email.

So, what do we do? Complain or lead by example? Continue reading →

Vacation season – make the most of it!

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We’re heading into the July 4th weekend and summer is already a third over. Hopefully you have made plans for a break of some sort with family or friends in the next few months. My colleagues in Vermont say canstockphoto21032568 (1) red white blue chairsJuly is the most popular time for vacations since it’s the only nice month of the year. Those of us in the northern parts of the country truly do appreciate our precious few summer months.

Remember the 6 R’s of summer – rest, relax, refresh, renew, reflect and reboot. And if you have to work or keep in touch with work while you take a break – check out “4 tips when you must work on vacation”.

Happy 4th of July to all!  Enjoy the rest of your summer and try not to think about when the first snowfall will happen. It’s still a long way off!

Related Posts:

4 tips when you must work on vacation

Take time to reboot

The 6 R’s of summer

Good intentions – a midyear checkup

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Remember those things called New Year’s resolutions? Do you make them? Do they last past January? At the start of 2019, I stepped back and did some soul searching (sounds deeper than it was!) and came canstockphoto9123549 (1) calendarup with three broad “intentions” rather than resolutions. They are balance, passion, and engagement.

By balance I wanted to figure out how to make my goal of working closer to three quarters time rather than full-time a reality. Being two plus years into our business, StarBridge Advisors, I was working much more than I initially intended. One of my goals when I stepped off the permanent CIO track in early 2016 was to have more flexibility in my career and work more like three quarters time over the course of the year. When I do an interim engagement, it is obviously a full-time commitment but then there are breaks in between.

So, in January, I decided I would be more intentional about scheduling down time. A great way to do that each week was to block off Tuesdays when I could and spend them with my daughter and two grandkids as that was her day off each week as a nurse practitioner. We had many fun Tuesdays together.

Since I said “yes” to another interim engagement in May it’s been more like having two full-time jobs considering how busy StarBridge Advisors is these days. Evenings and weekends are very full to say the least. A good problem to have for anyone with their own business! But I need to get back to a better balance during this period. It’s a work in process for sure. But I am loving the work I’m doing these days and the people I’m working with.

By passion I wanted to focus some time on developing next generation leaders which has long been a passion of mine. I’d been thinking about an idea for some time focused on developing next generation women leaders. Continue reading →

Crunch time and why IT matters

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It’s crunch time. Every day counts. Can’t miss a deadline. All hands-on deck. Go live readiness assessments (GLRA). If you work in health IT and have been through a major EHR implementation, canstockphoto60328456 (1) EHR UVMHNyou’ve heard all these phrases.

At the University of Vermont Health Network (UVMHN), the Epic Wave 1 go live is less than 5 months away. The University of Vermont Medical Center (UVMMC) has been on Epic for inpatient and ambulatory core clinicals for years. Wave 1 includes the full revenue cycle, lab and anatomic pathology, radiology, OR and anesthesia, cardiology, ophthalmology, orthopedics, behavioral health, rehab, wound care, infection control, and predictive analytics at UVMMC.

Wave 1 also includes the first Epic implementations at three Vermont and New York hospitals in the network starting with ambulatory systems for billing and clinical functions. Waves 2 (2020) and 3 (2021) will be the full suite of inpatient systems at those same hospitals – Central Vermont Medical Center in Berlin, Vermont; Porter Medical Center in Middlebury, Vermont; and Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital in Plattsburgh, New York. Yet to be scheduled are Elizabethtown Community Hospital in Elizabethtown, New York; Alice Hyde Medical Center in Malone, New York; and Home Health and Hospice.

The core infrastructure is largely in place to support the November 1st go live though we have more to do at the device level. Over 10,000 users will be trained in a 6-week period. The first GLRA at 120 days pre go-live is coming up soon.

When I saw Epic on the agenda for the UVMMC quarterly leadership meeting, I assumed it was a project status update. How wrong I was. Continue reading →

Managing priorities and maintaining balance

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This week marks five years since I started writing this weekly blog. I still get asked how I find time to write each week. That’s a great question. There are weeks when I don’t know how I will find the time.  At canstockphoto9530224 work life balanceindustry conferences, people often come up to me and tell me how much they appreciate my blog. I was recently asked how long I’m going to keep writing. My answer was I’ll write as long as I have something to say that’s useful to others.

This is week three of my new interim management engagement. I have many new topics to cover based on all the best practices I’m seeing (PMO, Service Management, and effective meetings to name a few) but very little time to write.

My days are what you’d expect in an operations role while being in a learning mode. My nights are full reviewing documents balanced with addressing the highest priority follow-up work as a principal in StarBridge Advisors.

While I’m trying to keep up some level of exercise routine, gym workouts have fallen by the wayside. When we get busy, we have to prioritize and re-prioritize and be willing to let some things go. And we need to take care of ourselves.

Thursday night is when I usually finalize my blog and get it ready to publish first thing Friday morning. Many weeks, it’s when I finally write what I’ve been percolating on for a few days.

But this week Thursday night was a “date night”. A few years back when my husband and I first discussed the idea of me doing interim engagements, we thought that it could also mean having an adventure in another city if he came with me at times. We decided this was a good week for him to be in Burlington with me. We acted on that adventure goal and bought tickets for the Thursday night performance at the Burlington Jazz Festival. It seemed like a great idea at the time. Continue reading →