SA asked me to blog about RCHC's Quality Culture Series (QCS) -- and how that has affected our EHR implementation.
In brief, QCS is a leadership training collaborative focused on quality. Participants were teams of the CEO, COO and CMO from each participating clinic. The result was a common understanding, language and culture of quality improvement in the clinic and in the network.
So our EHR implementation is one big quality improvement project. The complexity makes it hard to not be pulled in a thousand different directions. The QI orientation keeps us on track. It has laid the foundation of data collection, process redesign and change management -- so that the EHR becomes an engine for the work we want to do anyways. There has been minimal resistance and maximum collaboration -- on all levels.
Not that it isn't stressful and an immense amount of work. But the common understanding of the goal and the process helps. Makes it easier weather the huge disruption of EHR technology, and makes us braver to take advantage of the opportunities the disruption creates.
The latest opportunity is realizing the potential of the patient portal. Have any of you had experience with that yet?
2 comments:
Nancy:
I think that you bring up an important and vital point as we all make our way through our individual implementations. Focusing on process and outcomes and achieving those outcomes are what makes a truly successful implementation, not just being able to say that you met all of the technical milestones of your project plan.
Mike
Nancy -
Thank you for writing about the QCS. I had the opportunity to work with a few of the RCHC member organizations during and after the QCS and it was clear that they had embraced many of the concepts from both a strategic and tactical perspective. I have also heard Dr. Moore talk about the "IT Approach" to implementation - linear, project-based, defined start and end dates contrasted with the "QI Approach", which is more process-oriented and can be represented by an evolutionary spiral rather than a straight timeline. Very interesting, thanks again.
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