5 Ways to Improve Clinician/Staff Satisfaction

One of the most valuable assets a hospital has is its clinicians and staff. Keeping your employees engaged and satisfied in their roles is essential to optimal performance and staff retention.  By safeguarding your employee fulfillment you can reduce the high cost and resource demands of staff attrition.

So how do you ensure staff satisfaction? There are countless things employers can do to boost moral and job satisfaction.  The HCI Solution aims to help their employees sustain a passion for their work while helping minimize effort and wasted time for our customers. Simple initiatives and minimal effort can go a long way towards keeping your clinicians and staff happy.

Empower Staff

Without empowering your staff with trust to make decisions and take action employees can not reach their full potential. To have a dream team where the employees take initiative, use their talent to problem solve and are innovative they must have the authority to use those skills. Delegating responsibilities with the intent to further develop and stretch your staff with clearly defined expectations and autonomy is the best way to provide structured staff empowerment. At The HCI Solution it is encouraged to continuously learn, grow and develop.  With many of our Solutions for our customers being unique problems that have proved difficult to solve, HCI employees use creativity and their vast experience to overcome complicated tasks. Allowing the staff to enhance and steer their own job development ensures a mutually beneficial support system between staff and employer.

Reduce Workflow Interruption

Interruption of workflow with delayed system launches can put a damper on process turnover. Laggy launches to required systems is an example of wasted time that can be streamlined. The use of dynamic launches that can open in the background eliminating lag time or that can pass necessary information automatically from one program to another saves time and re-entering data.  The HCI Solution achieves this through the use of LaunchIT for our customers. LaunchIT provides an intuitive solution that aims to eliminate unnecessary wait time to open another system and/or auto populating to the desired content. While a laggy launch might seem like an inconsequential nuisance, the time adds up quickly with multiple uses. When regulatory documentation is needed, keeping the time it takes to accomplish that task is a good idea to maintain compliance.

Support Staff With Needed Resources

Supporting your staff with the tools needed to achieve makes the clinical staff operations easier for everyone.  Downtime can be one of the occasions when a good solution can make an enormous difference in the amount of work and frustration that is thrust upon the staff.  Having a solution that mimics your current EHR and allows you to view all the necessary patient data to safely care for your patients while your system is down can prove invaluable.  ContinuITy™ Downtime Portal was created with these factors in mind. Having an effective solution helps the clinical teams to continue to focus on their patients instead of the downtime obstacle leaving everyone with added peace of mind.

Automate Processes

Time-consuming manual tasks that can be automated are another source of grievance for clinicians and staff. There are many ways to automate tasks in a hospital and The HCI Solution has come up with a few.  The HCI Solution’s Data Services team uses scripting and other tools to automate compiles and/or processes.  One example is providing batch processing for numerous workflow initiatives.  Some tasks are extremely time-consuming but necessary. Batch processing eliminates the arduous effort and minimizes the burden.

Cut Down on Menial Tasks

It is frustrating and inefficient for high value resources to be tasked with menial objectives that eat up their time. SyncSolve® is an application designed to limit time on such tasks while encouraging ongoing dictionary management. Many internal initiatives are made easier or are dependent on the accuracy of dictionaries. This efficiency eliminates unnecessary manual entry and double keying. Keeping the LIVE and TEST synchronized is not only useful for best practice purposes but also saves extensive amounts of time during any system upgrade. By converting a time consuming strenuous task into a quick and easy duty it lightens the resource load and saves resources for critical  purposes.

There are many ways to improve clinician/staff satisfaction.  These listed suggestions just scratch the surface of actions that can be taken for this objective.  When thinking about the strain on staff sometimes streamlining their workflows and providing helpful tools can be enough; allowing for autonomy and growth while providing tools is even better. The HCI Solution is committed to building relationships and going the extra mile. Let The HCI Solution take some of the burdens and provide peace of mind.

Contact Us to find out how we can help improve your clinician/staff satisfaction.

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Be Prepared for the Expected and Unexpected

You may have noticed more and more hospitals are making the decision to upgrade systems. Nowadays updates and upgrades are important; they offer more advanced security, ease of use, and enhanced integration and workflow features. Hospitals have found themselves in a push to keep up with technological advances over the years and increase their interoperability and efficiency like never before. It’s time to be prepared for the expected and unexpected and avoid delaying initiatives and upgrades.

With this enhanced and forever advancing technology comes the need of highly knowledgeable, well-rounded IT staff to keep systems running smoothly and efficiently. Hospitals cannot possibly acquire staff for every technical need they will face. New initiatives add to the demand of current staff and many hospitals do not have all the technical resources necessary when it comes time to prepare for and execute all tasks, especially unforeseeable issues, upgrading may involve.

When the decision is made to upgrade systems there are many things to consider. Do you have the resources necessary for any report writing, conversions, or extracts that may be required? Will you have scripting, custom integration, interface engine, and/or software development needs, and do you have the staffing necessary to accommodate those needs while still maintaining daily operations? Are you prepared for the testing and any other adjustments required to go LIVE?

When the need arises to augment technical resources, the vendor search then begins. How much time is spent trying to find the right vendor to meet your needs? Do they offer all the services and products that your initiatives require? If the answer is no, are you then stuck searching for multiple vendors to make sure you are covered in every area? How much time, money, and effort is involved in searching, vetting, and negotiating with the vendors under consideration?

Working with multiple vendors can be challenging. The time and resources involved with coordinating projects requiring multiple areas of expertise can be very costly and taxing to any facility. Certain vendors can cause delays leaving all parties involved at a standstill, which can be inefficient and stressful. Wouldn’t it be nice to have one well rounded, technical resource at your disposal when you require assistance? One vendor to call on any time help is needed with the heavy lifting while you continue to focus on day-to-day operations.

These are the very reasons The HCI Solution developed a plan to help facilities augment their technical resources. Engineering Concierge Services is a revolutionary concept rolling all the different services that The HCI Solution offers into one customizable plan for the same monthly rate. Utilize hours when and where you need extra resources the most. Avoid delaying Go-LIVE by having a credible industry council partner at your disposal through the entire process.

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We have multiple customers that have utilized Engineering Concierge Service plans when preparing for upgrade. Peterson Health has and continues to utilize a number of our services under Engineering Concierge, through their MEDITECH Expanse upgrade and beyond to ensure cost effective project completion. Engineering Concierge even allowed them to replace 4 vendors with a single point of contact saving them time, money, and the headache of coordinating with multiple vendors. Read PETERSON HEALTH’S TESTIMONIAL about their experience utilizing The HCI Solution’s Engineering Concierge Services.

Engineering Concierge Services is a versatile plan designed to fit any hospital’s budget. Sign on for as many or as few hours as you desire, lock in that competitive hourly rate, and split the cost into the same monthly payment for a year. Use your hours when and where you need the extra assistance, those hours are yours until they are used up with no expiration. Be prepared for the expected as well as the unexpected with Engineering Concierge Services.

Detailed look of how Engineering Concierge Services work.

Learn more about Engineering Concierge Services.

Contact Us to discuss your customized Engineering Concierge Services plan options.

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Improving Clinical Efficiencies: Single Sign-On and Content Sharing

Single Sign-On (SSO) is not the entire answer to clinical efficiencies but rather one important piece of the puzzle. There is no doubt SSO enabled software has allowed users to become more efficient, but the missing piece of the puzzle is clinical content sharing between applications. Clinical content, like what patient you’re on in the EMR, what clinical application you’re in, what user is logged into the workstations, what user is logged into the EMR, etc., are key pieces to the efficiency puzzle. Most clinical EMR software supports some level of FHIR API’s calls which have added much to the missing clinical content piece of efficiency, but it doesn’t solve the entire workflow challenge.

The missing piece of the puzzle is integrating other clinical software into the clinical EMR workflow with clinical and other content. Several specific challenges exist with content sharing, like is the user logged into the EMR the same as the user logged into the workstation? When launching other clinical applications from the EMR your SSO and content software must know who’s logged in to the EMR and who’s logged into the workstation. In the case of multi-user workstations, you want to know what EMR user is launching into the other clinical software. Another challenge is using Health Information Exchange (HIE) or other collaborative content sites and the delay to compile them when needed. For instance, you might want to precompile HIE or collaborative content when the user is on a specific screen so when they need it the content is immediately available, no need to wait while it compiles.

One way in which this efficiency has been achieved is through the use of LaunchIT. HCI’s LaunchIT application is designed to meet all the clinical content challenges without complicated, fragile software design. If you have clinical software you want to integrate with your clinical EMR workflow with SSO and content, LaunchIT is what you’re looking for. Powerful, solid architecture to meet all your clinical software integration needs.

Click here to learn more about how you can optimize your workflow with LaunchIT.

Contact Us to schedule a demo and see LaunchIT in action.

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Data Definitions – Finding Where the Data Lives

What is this term “Data Definition” that everyone is always talking about? Okay, I admit maybe not everyone is talking about data definitions, but it is a common term thrown around for us folks that work in the MEDITECH space. Especially for those involved with requesting, designing, or creating reports.

A Data Definition is MEDITECH’s Term for a Data Schema.

Simply put a data definition or data schema is just a description of how data is organized and stored in a database. The terms data definition and data schema refer to the same thing. Data Definitions and data schemas are like words in a dictionary. Every field or key in a database has a definition. Except in this case, instead of a description of what the word means the definition describes in technical terms how the field is organized in a database and what its attributes are.

Keys, Records, Fields, and Attributes – Oh My!

A field is simply the smallest element of data in a database. Fields are defined by attributes like name, size, data type, length, and required. Attributes describe the behavior of a field or record. In addition to attributes fields also have values. However, when we are discussing data definitions or data schemas, we are generally referring to the attributes of the fields and what records they belong to, rather than their values. The data definition is created when designing the database and the field and key values are put in place when the database is being used.

A record is simply a group of related fields. For instance, in MEDITECH the RegAcct.Providers record contains fields like IsPrimaryCareProv and IsAttendProv.  This record has two keys. The first key is the patient identifier. In MEDITECH the patient identifier is referred to as the OID or Object Identifier. The second key is the Provider, which points to the person dictionary. This would be the physician’s user ID or user mnemonic.

Keys are used to identify a specific instance of a record. To illustrate this concept, think about this simple real-world example: Lets design a database schema to keep track of library books. You might design a record called Book, that contains fields such as: book title, author, publish date, and type of book (paperback, hardcover, digital), ETC. A good key value for the book record may be the book’s ISBN number. It is often the case though that the library will have multiple copies for a particular book. In that case you may want a separate record to track each physical book in the library.  The record to track this might be called BookInventory and contains fields like ISBN number (points to the Book record), book status (in/out), and the library user that has the book checked out. The key for this record could be a system generated number that uniquely identifies each physical book in the library.

Why are Data Definitions Important?

Reports are an important part of the modern Electronic Health Record (EHR). The first step in designing any report or SQL query is determining what specific data is needed to meet the report requirements. Then you need to determine where the data is stored in the database. The data definitions are what you need to determine where the data is stored and how it is organized. To add fields to your report, you need to know how the fields are identified (what record keys are needed). There is no way to write a report without understanding the relationships of the fields that are needed for your report. The data definitions clearly spell this out for you.

Viewing Data

When working on reports or SQL queries it can be extremely valuable to view data in its raw form. Viewing the data definitions is helpful but looking at the raw data after reviewing the data definitions can really help you understand the relationships between the different fields and records. MEDITECH has a very powerful tool called Object Viewer that can be used to view MEDITECH data in its raw form. However, this tool is only available to MEDITECH staff. For those of you that are familiar with C/S and MAGIC NPR, this is akin to viewing MEDITECH data from the “G” get function at the MEDITECH front end.

We are all bound to protect patient data and should only be allowed to view data that we are granted access to view. It would be extremely useful for folks writing reports to be able to use a data viewer tool that only provides access to the data that the user has permission to view. When working on SQL reports or queries, typically the person writing the report can easily view all the data in the database he/she is working on. Keep in mind though that a MEDITECH SQL database (livefdb, lvendb) contains ALL of the MEDITECH applications for the designated platform (M-AT or NPR). Access to view specific data can be controlled at the table level in SQL. However, often access is granted to an entire database. This type of access does make sense for someone that is writing a report.

Viewing Data Definitions

Fortunately, there are a lot of great tools for viewing data definitions. I put this table together in order to outline all of the different tools that are available and some of their pros and cons.

Data Definition Viewer

Description

Pros/Cons

Object Explorer

MEDITECH’s tool that is built into the MEDITECH system that can be found on the Report Designer Menu. There is also a link to it directly inside Report Designer.

Pros:

  • Built right into MEDITECH.
  • Can be used for either M-AT or NPR applications.
  • Has a very useful search feature built into it.
  • Can follow links to other objects on pointer type fields.

Cons:

  • Does not allow you to view field values.
  • The search feature can be slow.
  • Does not show SQL table or column names.

Object Viewer

This tool is also built into the MEDITECH system. It allows you to view the data definitions and the raw data. This is a very powerful, extremely useful tool for browsing the database and viewing data in the database.

Pros:

  • The most powerful, useful tool for viewing MEDITECH data.
  • Built into the MEDITECH system.

Cons:

  • No user access restrictions.
  • MEDITECH staff use only.
  • Does not show SQL table or column names.
  • Data access is not logged

The HCI Solution Data Definition Tool

Web based tool that is free for everyone to use. You just need to submit a simple form with us to get access.

Pros:

  • View MEDITECH data definitions in the browser.
  • Displays SQL table and column names.
  • Very quick to navigate.
  • Contains data definitions for ALL MEDITECH platforms.
  • Can use Ctrl+F to quickly search through data definitions.
  • Can follow links to other objects on pointer type fields.

Cons:

  • Does not allow you to view field values (of course!).
  • SQL key names for keys are not listed (yet). We are working on adding this.

MEDITECH Online Data Definitions

Web based tool on MEDITECH’s web site that is only available for NPR applications.

Pros:

  • View MEDITECH data definitions in the browser.
  • Quick to navigate.
  • Can use Ctrl+F to quickly search through data definitions.
  • Can follow links to other objects on pointer type fields.

Cons:

  • Only NPR data definitions!
  • Does not show SQL table or column names.
  • Cannot view field values.

MEDITECH Online DR Data Schema

MEDITECH’s SQL Data Repository Database Layout. This tool is very helpful for browsing/viewing the SQL database layout for DR. However, this tool does not show you the MEDITECH database layout for the MEDITECH transactional EHR.

Pros:

  • View MEDITECH data definitions in the browser.
  • Quick to navigate.
  • Can use Ctrl+F to quickly search through data definitions.
  • Can follow links to other tables for keys and fields that point to other tables.
  • Includes both M-AT and NPR data schema.
  • Can download schema data files. Useful for comparing system schemas.

Cons:

  • Very useful for SQL but does not include the MEDITCH EHR data definitions.

Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)

This is the Microsoft tool that is used to manage Microsoft SQL Server databases and to write and execute SQL queries. Built into this tool is the ability to view the database schema.

Pros:

  • The most powerful, useful tool for viewing MEDITECH data in an SQL database.
  • Easy to restrict user access to specific SQL databases. However, all MEDITECH applications are lumped under the same SQL database.

Cons:

  • Tables can be very slow to load if you don’t filter them out.
  • Not easy to restrict user access by MEDITECH application.
  • Data access is not logged.
  • For SQL data only.

Click here to view The HCI Solution’s Data Definitions Tool. The HCI Solution Data Services team also provides advanced report writing and report conversion assistance, Click here to check out our services. The HCI Solution gives back to the MEDITECH community by providing complimentary beginner to advanced Report Designer Educational Sessions each month. View our upcoming RD Ed Sessions.

 

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The Best of Both Worlds: NPR Report Writer and Report Designer

In Expanse, MEDITECH provides two full-featured reporting solutions: NPR Report Writer and Report Designer. Whether we are transitioning existing reports from MEDITECH MAGIC or Client/Server (CS) to Expanse, or building new reports within an active Expanse environment, we need to take a granular view of our options and determine which tool is best suited for each use case. In this exposition, we’re going to review the pros and cons of these two tools, and how to leverage these traits when determining the best option for our reporting needs. Though our examples will be focused on reports being updated across platforms, the same considerations are applicable to new reports being created in Expanse. In addition to our evaluation of NPR Report Writer and Report Designer, we will discuss how you can have the best of both worlds.

Those of us writing reports in MAGIC and CS are already familiar with MEDITECH’s NPR Report Writer, and any existing reports will be written in this medium. The NPR Report Writer is a robust, versatile reporting tool with the capacity to write extremely complex reports with relative ease, using the editor’s extended fragment and macro functionality. This functionality lends itself well to staff familiar with the NPR programming language, being able to create powerful macro-driven reports, that can even call other reports or MEDITECH routines, as needed. Though the MAGIC and CS NPR Report Writers have syntactical and platform-specific differences, converting existing NPR reports to Expanse will only require minor adjustments, provided that the application they are written out of, and fields they reference, are still in NPR in Expanse. This brings us to our first hurdle: there is no native way to pull fields from M-AT applications into an NPR Report Writer report. In Expanse, many applications have changed platforms from NPR to M-AT, such as Abstracting (ABS) and Patient Accounting (BAR), and any report needing to reference data from these applications would need to be built using Report Designer.

Report Designer is the report writing tool MEDITECH provided alongside the release of the M-AT platform and it is included with Expanse. Report Designer has a streamlined, user-friendly interface with many efficiencies that simplify the report creation process. For example, Report Designer includes a mode designed specifically for creating export-style reports that can be leveraged to quickly generate reports in multiple formats. Rather than providing free-form macro functionality like NPR Report Writer, Report Designer is integrated with a rules editor that does not require any programming experience to utilize. This rule-based approach is both a pro and a con, for though it allows users with varying degrees of experience to add custom logic to reports, reports written in Report Designer are bounded by the limitations the rules editor imposes. This can make the task of reproducing complex macro-driven NPR Reports in Report Designer challenging, and unfortunately, in some cases impossible.

When faced with the impossible, we were compelled to pose the question: What if there was another option? What if there was a means of retrieving M-AT data, while still benefiting from the power and versatility of NPR Report Writer’s macro-driven functionality?

The HCI Solution’s answer to this question is the M-AT Object Module (MOM©). MOM© is a suite of utilities encapsulated within an NPR Report that can be called from other NPR Reports to pull in M-AT data. Regardless of the complexity of the dataset or use case, MOM© can be used to achieve the best of both worlds, the data we want in an editor that provides the power and functionality we need. MOM© can even be used to report on M-AT data that it is not currently possible to report on in Report Designer, or that can only be reported on inefficiently, i.e. with complex rules that will take significantly longer to run than a procedural approach would take. In addition to standard M-AT fields, MOM© can be utilized to report on audit log data and user activity (which Report Designer cannot), Financial Status Desktop statistic details, and can even retrieve data housed within a different HCIS than the HCIS the report is being launched from.

Choosing the best report editor for a use case is important, but it doesn’t need to be daunting. Report Designer and NPR Report Writer are both incredible tools, with strengths that should be leveraged in the report conversion and creation process. With the inclusion of MOM©-enhanced NPR Reports, we are free to choose between either tool, without introducing any barriers between us and the data.

Click here to learn more about The HCI Solution’s M-AT Object Module – MOM©

The HCI Solution Data Services team also provides advanced report writing and report conversion assistance, Click here to check out our services.

The HCI Solution also gives back to the MEDITECH community by providing complimentary beginner to advanced Report Designer Educational Sessions each month. View our upcoming RD Ed Sessions.

 

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