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The Doctors' Experience
While the institute was being built and the kinks were getting worked out of the EMR system, doctors worked with paper charts at a small clinic in Las Vegas. Then one day, Faircloth flipped a switch and the business went paperless overnight. It wasn't a painless transition.
"Doctors are not computer people; they don't feel they should be doing data entry," Faircloth says. "There were a couple of times we had some uprisings, 'This isn't working, let's go back to paper. I need my charts.' I've kept the focus that everything needs to be electronic. The hub is our EMR system."
Manno recalls the frustration.
"The learning curve was very difficult for a lot of physicians, myself included," he says. "I've been on computers since 1977, but the software program needed to be tweaked. The IT center was being developed with state-of-the art equipment, but the software program that was chosen created difficulties. It was not up to speed to make a totally paperless environment. We've had to make it fit with a great deal of frustration. I'm still not totally happy."
There were other problems as well. The institute went through a couple of dictation software programs before finding one that met its needs: the Dragon product by Nuance Communications Inc., in Burlington, Mass.
The original plan called for doctors to do much of their work on wireless tablet PCs. But the doctors found the screens too small to view spreadsheets or examine images. The battery power didn't last long enough. People kept knocking them off tables.
Eventually Faircloth changed course and put PCs into exam rooms, which required re-wiring the walls.
"If we ever build a building again, we'll be able to do it a little better," says Manno.
The institute has also redrawn the org chart to make IT more central to the business. Faircloth originally reported to the CFO but now works with President and COO Sandra Murdock. And Faircloth has tried to change the way IT deals with its clients.
"They expected IT to do everything: [to] know how these systems work and would be implemented," he says. "Now we're working more closely with the operating departments. Before it was, 'Rich, go out and find out what's the best and get it running tomorrow.' IT can do that, but it should not. You fail more than you succeed when you don't have input for the products. I've been pushing it back at them."
And yet for all the potholes along the way, Faircloth says the institute finally seems to be coasting along.
"I've opened quite a few places," Faircloth says. "I know the steps that need to be done. It comes down to having the right people and a good plan. Now I get more help calls about a bad Internet connection in a hotel across the country than I do about our systems, and that's a good thing."
Michael Ybarra is a contributing writer for SearchCIO-Midmarket.com. Write to him at editor@ciodecisions.com.
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