Having the right plans in place heading into a technology implementation ensures you are wisely spending and appropriately allocating your time, money, and effort. It helps you reach go-live quicker and see ROI sooner. In addition to having a thorough project plan and timeline, we’ve found these tips to be helpful when implementing our prescription renewal delegation solution, Charlie.
1. Ensure staff are open to change and agree on workflows
First and foremost, be sure that the staff affected by the implementation are open to the cultural shift that new technology will bring. Charlie is designed to take prescription renewals off providers plates, and instead, have them processed by MAs, RNs, or pharmacy staff. However, if providers aren’t on board with having others complete their renewals, or if staff don’t feel comfortable with the workflow or have support from the organization, it can slow implementation and negatively impact ROI. Ensure this isn’t the case by being diligent with workflow and protocol consensus among staff.
Related reading: 4 Quick Tips to Achieving Prescription Renewal Protocol Consensus
2. Have the right people involved
It’s also important to have key stakeholders involved (see the next tip for one of them!). The “right people” may include your physician champion, pharmacist champion and/or your nursing champion. Also be sure your executive sponsor (the driving force behind making things happen) has full buy-in, is able to influence others and is involved throughout the process.
Related reading: The Right Mix: Assembling a Prescription Renewal Protocol Committee
3. Designate a project lead
In addition to the key stakeholders, assign someone as the project lead. This person is responsible for scheduling meetings, managing timelines, gathering necessary resources, and liaising between the champions. They’re also the primary liaison between healthfinch and their team, so they should be good at organizing and communicating information clearly and concisely.
4. Understand IT needs
Depending on the EMR a health system uses, IT requirements can vary. It’s important to fully understand what will be needed from IT and what their available bandwidth is so that the project doesn’t come to a halt.
5. Commit to training
Our customer success team works closely with customers to get to know the end users and their workflows, as well as gain insight into how well they know and utilize their EMR so that a thorough training plan can be developed. However, it is most helpful if there is a designated training lead to assist in developing the right training materials and approach for their team, and serve as the on-site resource for staff who may have questions.
Of course, our customer success team will be there every step of the way during implementation and are happy to offer additional tips or answer any questions so that you and your team can get up and running quickly!
Interested in learning more about our approach? Contact our team at sales@healthfinch.com.
