It has been more than a week since my last post…mainly because there was so much to do to get this system up and running that it didn’t leave much time to write.
The go-live went pretty well last week. While we still have a few loose ends to tie up I think it would be safe to call the project a success at this time. A couple of things contributed to that success that were not only important to this project but are essential to others that are similar in nature.
Training was key in this project. In the past our practice agreed to do a beta test of another PACS software that was reasonably different than what our doctors and staff were using up to that point. There was no scheduled training (as too often is the case in a busy practice) and we tried to learn on the fly. It just didn’t work. The doctors and staff quickly got frustrated and rather than get behind on the patient load they resorted back to the inferior software because they knew how to manage it.
This time we carved out some training time for each doctor and each x-ray tech just prior to the go-live and needless to say, things went much better. Lesson learned: you cannot expect staff and doctors in a busy practice to learn new applications on the fly. You have to be willing to find time in their schedules for training!
Also, I think “ease of use” or “intuitiveness” is an extremely important element in choosing applications for people who use technology as opposed to managing it. Some applications have great features; however, if the software is too complex for the average user to utilize it for its main functions then it has less value than an application that is less feature-rich but easier to use for the main functions.
Keep these things in mind when considering projects…I hope this is helpful. Feel free to contact me for more help in planning your IT projects.