Question: What three strategies would you propose to the board to minimize the risk of project failure with respect to the Epic system implementation?
Roll out back office parts of EPIC first in order to allow the organization to familiarize itself with the applications in EPIC while at the same time developing internal capabilities around training of staff for implementing the software. Implementing back office first would provide an early win, demonstrate success, and help mitigate concerns around implementation failure. Even though the back office staff felt the current revenue cycle software was doing its job for their purpose, the old system was not likely to meet the enterprise needs. By starting the back office it also sends a signal to the clinical side that the administrative side has done their work, they are on board, and now it is your turn.
Phase implementation on the clinical side of the enterprise. Implementing first within hospital and then moving to external clinics (where paper records were still in use) would allow for the least disruption. The phased implementation allows for tinkering of the product to meet unforeseen needs and will improve buy-in from the powerful hospital staff groups, notably physicians in key clinical areas. Obtaining buy-in is a huge issue with physicians who tend to have a culture of slow adoption and resistance to change. In addition the hospital physicians also had some resentment around the previous implementation of CPOE (which did not go well) so developing early buy-in through the MIDWIG group would aid in successful implementation. In addition, phased implementation allows customization and works well in a decentralized system, allowing individual testing of sub-units before integrating the whole system.
Develop a 40-60 ratio of contractors to SHC employees for the implementation team. During implementation there is both a need for customization and need for speed.