Section 4.2 Implement

Managing HIT ProjectsProject management is the act of carrying out the project plans your local public health (LPH) department has developed. During project management all tactical elements that must be managed during implementation of electronic health record (EHR), health information exchange (HIE), or other health information technology (HIT) are identified.

Time needed: 4 hoursSuggested other tools: 2.2 Communication Plan, 2.13 Chart Conversion and Pre-load Planning

How to Use Vendors and large organizations will often use Microsoft Project to construct their project plans. If this is not available to you, construct a project plan using a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet (see 4.3 Project Plan) or even a table in Word. For any given project, the actual steps will be very specific to the application and the vendor’s implementation strategy. However, the sample plan gives you a good idea of the level of detail, nature of the tasks, need to identify resources, and time management involved. It also provides you with a good start to developing your own plan.

1. Review the implementation plan that the vendor supplies, ideally with the vendor’s implementation specialist. Consider the tasks, resources, and timing, and coordinate necessary

changes with the vendor.

2. Prepare to develop a project plan for your organization that reflects the milestones from the vendor’s plan, and all other tasks you need to perform. In some cases, you may have to manage several vendors at one time (e.g., the EHR vendor, a systems integrator that is writing interfaces for you, a chart conversion company, a construction contractor, a data conversion company, a telecommunications company, an IT consultant to help you set up secure email, and a consultant to serve as a general contractor during implementation and training for both EHR and HIE if your project manager does not have this experience or the job

is too big).

Recording all of the project milestones from these different vendors can help you track their progress as well as the dependencies among them (such as, you can’t install network upgrades

without a contractor to lay cable and without engaging the telecommunications vendor to connect your local network to an external virtual private network). Frequently other tasks come from your communication plan, chart conversion plan, clinical practice guidelines, training plan, testing plan, policy and procedure checklist, and others.

3. Review the components of a project plan and record all elements. The illustration below shows these components:

a. Tasks are the actions you need to perform, such as “Review general implementation plan.”

b. Timeline is where start and end times are recorded. Microsoft Project has an entire process associated with constructing a timeline. In an Excel spreadsheet, at a minimum, decide how long the overall project is intended to take, then lay out the timeline in days, weeks, months, quarters, etc.—depending on the overall duration and expected granularity of the task time.

Section 4 Implement—Managing HIT Projects - 1

i. Phase is illustrated by a bar that extends over related tasks.

ii. Planned duration of phase is illustrated by the length of the bar.

iii. Progress on task is illustrated by a line shown either through the duration bar or immediately below it. If using Excel, you will need to create a separate row below each task to illustrate progress, or show progress for each task under a phase.

iv. Relationship/Dependency is not illustrated in the Excel example, because this is a fairly sophisticated process. The sequencing of the tasks helps you identify dependencies. Alternatively, it can be illustrated by color coding related tasks or drawing lines linking one task to another.

c. Milestone is a triggering event rather than a specific point in time, such as “Receive general implementation plan” in the example. This event triggers the rest of the project. Recording the various vendors’ milestones on your project plan can be helpful.

d. Resources are the names of organizations, groups, or individuals you expect to complete the task. For example, if an interface must be written between two applications by the systems integration company ABC, then ABC is the Resource. Employees, domain teams, and others may be responsible for tasks.

Copyright © 2014, Margret\A Consulting, LLC. Used with permission of author

4. Monitor progress by periodically indicating how much of a task has been completed by a certain date. The project plan should enable you to track when a task is starting too late, when a task is taking too much time, or when another task is in jeopardy of not being completed before another task that depends on it needs to start.

Section 4 Implement—Managing HIT Projects - 1

Copyright © 2014 Stratis Health. Updated 03-12-14

Section 4 Implement—Managing HIT Projects - 1