I'm a huge music fan. I find American Recovery and Reinvestment Act's (ARRA) Healthcare Information Technology and Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) has simultaneous rudiments of harmony and elements of cacophony. I think the ultimate goal is like striking a beautiful musical chord and the various committees are the combination of notes in that chord.
Are you pleased with the progress of the proposal to Health and Human Services (HHS) from the Certification and Adoption Workgroup of the HIT Policy Committee? From my examination and analysis, I am in agreement with the essence of the plan and I believe synchronization will prevail.
However, there is HIT-discord in our industry. Very few healthcare organizations, physician practices and vendor partners are taking action. The HITECH incentive is stimulating our industry's planning. Until the detail of meaningful Electronic Heath Record (EHR) use is determined, I find there is a deceleration of implementation activity and product licensing. I think this is a vast concern that could lead to further disharmony and perhaps fatal business errors.
Renaissance Interlude
I am fortunate to speak with healthcare delivery organizations’ CIOs and vendor-based executives on a regular basis. Earlier this year I was told many HIT projects were 'stalled' for the spring but would be picking up in the fall due to the economy. iHealthBeat confirmed this speculation with statistics from HIMSS participants – 30 percent were postponing projects or slowing their implementation. Nineteen percent of HIT purchases were on hold.
I find these same individuals are still in a 'wait-and-see' mode until more detail emerges from the HITECH legislation. The disquiet stems from the following commentary:
· How and when will my projects get funded?
· How much money could I begin loosing in 2010?
· If I don't start my CPOE project to attain meaningful EHR use now, will I be able to fully implement our monolithic system by 2014?
· Will the vendor or consultant community be able to help us achieve meaningful use? Or are their resources as finite as ours?
· How many HIT personnel will I need for all of my upcoming projects and time-tables?
Classical Genre
Of course, we all remember the Y2K debacle, where there was cacophony. Everyone knew they would need full-time staff or temporary consultants to get them through the potential crisis of the Year 2000 'bug.' Yet everyone waited until the last possible moment to hire qualified staff.
And what happened? There was not any more top-notch staff with the expertise or experience left to hire.
Let's not let that happen with ARRA HITECH. I urge you to continue your HIT resource planning. Here are some suggestions:
1) Identify projects, time-lines and staffing ratios now, even if you cannot act on the hiring
2) Begin the workforce discovery process without delay - it may take longer than you'd anticipate
3) Verify that your plan compares favorably to 'meaningful use' when all of the measures become public
4) Provide sufficient time for on-boarding and training of your new workers
How are you planning for the staffing resources you will need? Let me hear from you.
Roberta Rochman, RN, MBA, is partner for the Grapevine Group, an executive search firm.
