Major changes are often necessary to stay competitive in the healthcare industry. Blue Cirrus recognizes the challenges associated with making a successful transition and we are here to help. Our experienced engagement directors will provide strong leadership to your organization during this complicated process.
An engagement director is a key position for an organization transitioning from one EHR to another. The impact on the IT department during this transition is significant and requires a person with strong leadership skills. In order to ensure success, this role is important for managing the additional resources and legacy system support needed as the existing IT resources get transitioned to the new EHR system implementation. While we recognize the importance of putting significant focus and resources on the new EHR implementation, it’s equally important to ensure the legacy system is fully supported. Typically it is a 12-24 month window where that legacy system is still in place. Our engagement director leader can be invaluable in the support of those legacy system consulting resources during that transition.
Our recommendation is that an engagement director be in place 2 months in advance of transition of IT staffing. The services that IS leadership can expect from the engagement director include the following:
- Organization chart for current IS department, proposed legacy support team and new system implementation team.
- Role definitions and scope for the legacy support team
- Consultant or resource support usage plan
- List of applications/technology: Current picture and post new system implementation picture i.e. what is staying and what is going
- Governance structure during the implementation timeframe
- Address outstanding critical issues where the staff is currently engaged
- Upgrades or new implementations currently in process and/or need to be completed during the implementation time period.
- Gap analysis: analyze and provide solutions for legacy support staff and how continued legacy support will fit into the overall new implementation timeline.
- Existing staff: documentation of daily tasks, create retention plan post/during new EHR implementation, address related issues once the staff is re-allocated to the new implementation team.
Our engagement directors are seasoned leaders in healthcare IT and have experience with a variety of EHR systems. This experience will strengthen the process, save your organization money and keep the project on a strict timeline.
