HOW TO CHANGE HEALTHCARE POLICY

MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE WITH

MINIMAL INTERRUPTION

Every type of healthcare policy management software has its challenges when it comes to user training.

It is important that each individual within the organization has the knowledge of how to use the software correctly and is one of the key fundamental elements that helps to achieve a high software adoption rate.

If the majority of your organizations staff are technically challenged there might be a longer learning curve and takes more to get to a fully competent level.

Once at this competent level, it results in gaining the most benefits from healthcare policy management software.

IMPORTANT CONSIDERATIONS

Technical problems that healthcare teams perceive may arise from the removal of one system and implementation of another. The reality is that with the way most current software is designed, swapping

can usually be done with minimal interruption in terms of accessibility and availability of policies.

This is because during the transitioning period both software systems can usually coexist. In this sense all the employees can keep referring to the old policy management system even without knowing that a new policy management system is coming into play.

However, this scenario could become a l itt le confusing for certain staff members whom are continuously working on policies to perform the more t ime consuming tasks of edit ing or creating policies.

During the period of coexistence it is essential that the content producer/reviewer is well informed about the swapping and properly trained to use the new policy management system.

COMMON CONCERNS

Gradual: In this scenario the coexistence would happen for a longer period of time and members of staff need to be well informed as to where they would find each policy. This gradual process can happen from department to department or by location.

On-Off Switch: In this case the transition would occur as quick as a flip of switch for all Therefore it could create a period of time where policies on the old system would be out of date because they are being reviewed and transferred to the new software.

TRANSITION PROCESS

In both options the key is to time the swap properly so as to have the least amount of negative impact.

The recommended best practice would be option two as option one usually creates the problem of employees staying with what they are comfortable with and not necessarily adopting what the new organizational norm will be.

One of the features that many healthcare providers switching policy management platforms find useful are import tools, which can upload and set policies metadata based on a list of files and a spreadsheet.

After having the files extracted from the old system, and the spreadsheet prepared, the import can be done in a matter of hours. This is something to look for in your existing or upcoming policy management software.

BEST PRACTICE

Without doubt the biggest challenge in any software implementation is the training.

It can be frustrating to learn new systems but with appropriate planning and training the new healthcare policy management software can be picked up relatively easily as many of the principles are the same.

It is important to create a small communication plan aimed at producing some excitement and buzz around the launch of the new system.

Communication to your staff is extremely important to get them adopting the new policy management solution rapidly and to create excitement. This is important because policy management software has

complete corporate visibility within the healthcare setting.

TRAINING

So hopefully this gives you an idea of what to expect when changing your healthcare policy management software. This can be a difficult and important decision.

One final area that is hard to predict is the cooperation from the policy management vendor you will be leaving. One tip is if you are at the stage of selecting policy

management solutions you can ask to speak to a reference client that is no longer a customer of the vendor you are about to select.

Ideally this would be a client that migrated away from the policy management vendor you are about to select. As we all know companies have had customers that have moved on for various reasons. We have had a few at PolicyMedical over the years.

WHAT TO EXPECT

If you would like to find out more about switching healthcare policy management software contact us. Alternatively if you would like to see PolicyMedical’s Policy Manager software in action please request a

demo at http://policymedical.com/book-demo

THANK YOU

Policymedical.com