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Consulting services...
HIS Pros offers a wide scope of information technology consulting services that span the entire life cycle of an H.I.S. and encompass all application areas: financial and clinical, acute and non-acute care. Our five major service offerings are:
Information Technology Assessments
HIS Pros approach to IT assessments has been developed in over 15 years of providing exclusive IT consulting for with The Hunter Group, the premier Healthcare management consulting firm, for whom we have performed over 70 such engagements. We start by reviewing key documents in advance, including current contracts with major HIS vendors, the IT departments detailed budget and organization plans, and any extant IT Strategic Plan. In depth interviews are conducted with all levels of hospital staff, including executives, physicians, department heads and the IT department. A structured questionnaire enables the quantification of user (dis)satisfaction with various components of an HIS: hardware, software, interfaces, vendor support, etc. Comparisons of IT costs, staffing, user satisfaction and physician-friendliness are made to benchmarks of comparable institutions. A succinct presentation summarizes the results, with an emphasis on tactical (short-term) recommendations, which can improve IT department productivity and system utilization, while lowering costs.
IT Strategic Planning
HIS Pros plans future IT activities within the larger context of the healthcare institution's business and marketing plans. Strategic planning takes into account user satisfaction with current systems, potential gaps in the application portfolio, new developments in the IT industry, and current IT levels of staffing and costs. Our planning process integrates and prioritizes individual IT initiatives within the overall goals of the organization. Interviews and focus groups involve all levels of administrative, medical and professional staffs to arrive at an IT strategic plan that will best accomplish the institution's short term and long term goals. Our top-down and bottom-up approach insures that the entire organization buys in to the new IT plan, rather than just the IT department or executives alone. The finished plan is provided in electronic format to make it a living document, for periodic updates.
Vendor Evaluation & Selection
HIS Pros has developed a unique "Non-RFP" approach to selecting systems, that saves both time and money by avoiding a voluminous "Request For Proposal" (RFP) feature checklist. Instead, our approach starts by defining each user department's "Top 10" application needs, including current functionality they do not want to lose and adding new features gleaned from demos by leading HIS vendors. We issue a "Request For Information" (RFI) to the handful of vendors our years of experience indicates might meet the organization's needs soliciting client lists and "ball park" price quotes.
Based on the demos and RFI responses, a few vendors are then issued a "Request for Price Quotation" (RPQ), wherein HIS Pros starts to negotiate contract terms early in the process, while obtaining extremely detailed price including such "hidden" costs as travel and files conversion fees. While the RFIs and RPQs are being scrutinized, hospital users are ascertaining how the systems function in the real-world through thorough scored telephone reference checks with their department-head peers.
We use highly structured checklists to score vendor demonstrations, telephone references, un-chaperoned side visits and user documentation, which validate how well vendors perform in the real world. The results are graded, scored on custom spreadsheets and presented in periodic meetings that achieve a consensus among department heads, Medical Staff and IT, thus insuring end user "buy-in" to the new system.
Strenuous Contract Negotiation
After narrowing the field to two finalist vendors (not just one, as most consulting firms do), we analyze their boilerplate contracts and simultaneously negotiate contract terms to maximize the competitive pressure. We meet with vendor representatives multiple times during concurrent negotiations, which enables them to gain support for the concessions requested with their corporate management. HIS Pros asks the tough questions on issues such as response times, installer right of refusal and non-performance penalties and remedies.
HIPAA and other regulatory compliance is stressed strongly, based on terms we have successfully negotiated in the past with each vendor. We structure payment timing to reflect software testing and delivery milestones, rather than the vendor's cash flow needs. Finally, we assist in working acceptance clauses, problem escalation procedures and new product price protection, to position clients favorably in the future.
Implementation Assistance
HIS Pros assists healthcare institutions in implementing newly acquired automated systems to insure that the goals set out in obtaining them are actually met. Our experience ranges from working with traditional financial and clinical applications to emerging technologies. We can act as project managers or assist the MIS department in one or more applications areas. Throughout the installation process, we emphasize project planning and control, and adoption of a new system to the organization's operating needs, as well as re-engineering processes for optimal system use.
We have developed extensive planning aids for installing systems, including detailed work plans, PERT and Gantt charts, which assist management in identifying the appropriate reporting structure for monitoring progress. Through the process, we serve as management’s “eyes and ears,” to insure that both the hospital departments and vendor personnel are performing their assigned duties, providing our clients with advance problem identification and recommended resolution.
In addition, HIS Pros takes an active role in documenting new work flows, developing and managing file conversions, systems testing, and planning the critical "go live" scenario, so important for a successful and smooth conversion.
Other consulting services that HIS Pros provides include:
- HIPAA compliance assessments and remediation assistance
- Interim IT staff placement and permanent recruitment
- Multi-facility IT merger & consolidation planning
- Workflow analysis & process redesign
- Business interruption (disaster) planning
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