The Necessary Tools To Implement Successful Healthcare IT Projects

By Ramitha Herath, Manager — Delivery, VirtusaPolaris

The healthcare industry is currently forced to evolve under the pressures of increasing costs and demands for better quality of care. U.S. healthcare encompasses more than 5,600 hospitals, and over 900,000 practicing physicians and 3 million nurses. Nearly $3 trillion was spent on healthcare in 2014; split among hospital care (32 percent), physician services (20 percent), nursing homes (5 percent), personal healthcare (25 percent), and other goods and services (11 percent). On a per capita basis, this represented nearly 18 percent of the country’s gross domestic product.

Of healthcare’s total cost, the U.S. government paid for about 36 percent, mainly through Medicare and Medicaid. The remainder was paid for by private health insurance (about 33 percent) or out of pocket (about 11 percent). With healthcare costs expected to grow, the importance of successfully implemented healthcare IT projects has never been greater.

However, many healthcare IT projects have a tendency to fail to meet objectives or deliver on time/on budget. Some of these failures are pinned on software vendors, largely because of instances where a vendor replaces another without adding further value to the project. Lack of proper planning, goals and objectives, changing objectives, executive support and involvement, proper team communication, and inappropriate skill sets are all contributing factors as to why healthcare IT projects fail.

The healthcare industry is fast becoming one of the largest revenue sources for the IT industry. It is critical to realize failure to understand and avoid these problems will almost certainly guarantee just that — failure. Healthcare organizations are pushed to have effective IT solutions to meet meaningful user requirements and demands. Given this situation, here are some essential fundamentals for implementing a successful healthcare IT project:

• Planning: Unlike other IT projects, healthcare IT projects involve several different components and people from different professional backgrounds. Hence, a healthcare project requires detailed planning, clear scope, deliverables, schedules, project methodology, roles and responsibilities, and change management procedures. Clear expectations for each project member need to be set immediately. These should be crafted in a way that will ensure the project runs efficiently. Further, meeting regulatory requirements is a crucial aspect of carrying out a successful healthcare IT project.

• Set goals and objectives: Key players from all areas essential for project success need to be involved in determining the goals and objectives of the project. This includes the executive leadership, business, and IT involved. The definition of success needs to be agreed upon by all parties early on in the process.

• Adapt to changing objectives: Change management is important in every project, across every industry. It is particularly important in healthcare. Healthcare reform and government mandates change constantly and projects should have flexibility to adapt without impacting the bottom line. It is important to implement an effective change management procedure at the beginning of the project to ensure it meets all goals on-time and within budget.

• Staff your project appropriately: This involves appointing the best people from all areas of the project spectrum, including end-users. It is vital to choose the developers, testers, and analysts whose skills and effectiveness meet the needs of the project. They should be determined based on important qualities, including ability to focus on the project goals and adapt to change, and working with a team.

• Communicate: A communication strategy that includes all parties involved with the project must be formulated to ensure a greater success rate.

• Learn from the past: “What worked well previously?” “What could we have done differently?” The answers to key questions like these from past projects should be recalled and then utilized in the current project process. Healthcare is expanding rapidly in its use of information technology. When reviewing success stories as a learning tool, one must look at personal project experience, as well as those of other healthcare projects for these answers.

• Manage risks: Managing risk is one of the most important elements of a successful project. The usual risks in projects include scope, schedule, and budget. Since healthcare IT projects often impact patients’ lives and well-being, the project team must consider HIPAA regulations, patient safety, and security when exploring risks.

• Document: Healthcare software development requires a higher level of rigor compared to other industries. It is best to have a quality documentation system in place that all team members are trained with.

• Testing: Verify the overall results of the project and that its functionality performs at the expected level. Testing ensures team members have done their job successfully and that customers can trust the product they are receiving. Technical, functional, security and end users should all be part of the testing team. You want to ensure the software functions as designed and is secure, but you also want it to make sense business-wise.

• Evaluate: In medicine, it is common to discuss medical cases as a means of a learning exercise to determine how to perform better. The same system should be applied to healthcare IT projects: “What did we do well?” “What could we have done better?” “Did we make the right decisions?” “How do we do better next time?” The focus of the evaluation process should be to collaborate with one another to best determine the dos and don’ts for the next project you may tackle.

About The Author
Ramitha Herath is a project manager in the healthcare practice. He has worked in the IT sector for over 15 years and has over 10 years of project management and management consulting experience. Ramitha has worked with Fortune 1000 and Forbes 500 companies spanning the U.S., Europe, Africa and Asia and has experience working in multi-national/ multi-cultural environments spanning multiple geographies. Ramitha has been responsible for the successful delivery of complex medium and large-scale projects in healthcare, insurance, and media.