A hospital in South Dakota optimized its EHR Software system through early staff engagement. According to an AACC article written by Kacy Peterson a laboratory director at Avera McKennan Hospital and University Health Center, a smooth health IT implementation requires staff engagement throughout the planning process.
For a successful Electronic Medical Records (EMR) Software system implementation, Peterson was sure that it would be mandatory to include the laboratory staff in the planning process as the software deployment included a Laboratory Information System (LIS). A laboratory management system is a software solution that facilitates modern laboratory operations through a set of powerful features and tools. The system ensures that procedures are followed and helps to eliminate any chances of transcription errors with instrument integration.
Involving laboratory staff management to ensure health IT implementation
It was important for the hospital facility to make sure that the health IT implementation supports the laboratory workflows. This was guaranteed by including laboratory staff to identify and notice any functionality problems which may occur during both pre-live testings and after going live. Any issues were documented by staff members using sticky notes, this helped members easily spot the issues and overcome them.
Connecting staff members in the initial stages of the Laboratory Information System conversion facilitated building strong communications and relationships with healthcare IT partners and other stakeholders involved. The collaboration between staff members during early planning also enabled the hospital staff to easily communicate any modification requests to the IT partner for successful software implementation. For example, before the project was started the staff members gave lab rounds that helped IT developers have a close look into daily workflows and have a better understanding altogether. From the start of the implementation, this helped to build strong relationships which helped to resolve any issues later after going live more efficiently.
Moving Ahead
It can be said easily that a successful LIS conversation depends upon clear planning and assessing all the risks in the early stages. Involving staff management can improve efficiency and help identify any issues to make a LIS implementation a complete success.
