Team-based approach to health IT implementations

CNO Jeanne Venella published in Minority Nurse

jeanne VenellaToo many hospitals fail to include front-line clinical staff in health IT projects, leading to poor technology adoption or implementation failure, writes Bernoulli Chief Nursing Officer Jeanne Venella, DNP, MS, RN, CEN, CPEN, in an article published in Minority Nurse.

Hospitals have dedicated tremendous resources to create an integrated clinical environment that results in better patient treatment and outcomes, reduces readmissions and hospital utilization, and bends the overall cost of healthcare down.

Unfortunately, health IT projects either fall short of business and clinical goals or are completely abandoned at an astonishing rate. Studies vary, but failure-rate estimates range from 35 percent to 75 percent.

Venella argues that fostering a team of internal champions from a myriad of departments – including patient-facing clinical staff – significantly increases the chances of a sustainable health IT solution.

Writes Venella, “The seamless integration of technology requires that patient-facing clinical staff have influence in the design and testing of equipment and applications. Involving end-users in the early stages of system analysis and design specifications can lead to better adoption of new technology, as well as identifying how current technology can be adapted for greater user acceptance.”

Venella also recently hosted a Bernoulli-sponsored webinar on the topic of team-based approaches to technology adoption. The archived webinar can be found here.

 

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