IT Projects During the Pandemic

IT implementations in healthcare are usually a marathon and not a sprint.  The start to finish process of implementing a new EHR can take more than a year to complete.  As the COVID-19 pandemic not only lingers but has been picking up steam in parts of the world and United States, hospital systems are being forced to look at these implementations and reprioritize.

While a variety of projects have been affected in terms of their expediency, one of the most notable is the Department of Veterans Affairs’ decision to put their implementation of the Cerner EHR on hold.  The VA is not only caring for veterans at this time, but also offering up surge capacity for civilians in need.  At some sites, like Mann-Grandstaff in Spokane, WA, the VA says that implementation is 99% complete, but they don’t want to take any of their frontline staff away from the crisis at hand.

Different projects are getting varying degrees of priority. Projects involving telehealth have shot up the list while any sort of on-site implementations are at a standstill for the time being. IT staff is being diverted to implement work from home capabilities and maintaining or expanding the infrastructure that supports things like telehealth.

It’s wise to be cautious in these IT projects as well due to how many end users of a system like an EHR aren’t available for testing and feedback. Implementing new IT systems without this input could lead to more project delays and changes further down the line. Anything that can help with the increased patient load would be valuable in the short term though, and may help keep an organization on track for their larger goals.

At Extract, we’ve certainly seen both sides of the coin. It’s a difficult time to be discussing new software investments so we know that many healthcare organizations are going to need to delay discussions until new coronavirus cases are on the downswing. We’ve also heard from prospects who are interested in getting their implementations up and running quickly, to ease the burden of incoming paperwork so their staff doesn’t have to be burdened with manual data entry, and use our software in a work from home environment.

Now is a good time to make sure the IT projects you’re working on are making you more productive and aren’t burdensome to an already stretched IT and frontline staff.  We’re available to discuss your incoming document handling process if you have the time, so please reach out or schedule a time that’s convenient for you if you’re interested.