What is Information Technology? I will often answer that question with “we are a damned expensive performance improvement department.” That isn’t exactly true. However, what is true is that your medical center’s Information Technology department and Performance Improvement department should be joined at the hip.
My IT departments all share a common saying:
Crap process + technology = Fast Crap ….and EVERYONE in health care knows what fast crap is…Diarrhea. We have enough diarrhea in our work environments thank you very much. Please fix the process first.
Throwing technology at a crappy process won’t solve anything. I have seen time and time again where a medical system will drop several hundred thousand dollars on a “solution” without actually having any idea what the real problem was to start with.
When one of your clinical customers comes in wanting new shiny application, you need to stop the line and tell them the process must be evaluated first. This is where you bring in your performance improvement teams. Have the PI folks perform a value stream map. Determine how the service line is affected throughout the organization. Create a complete process flow of how the provider currently performs their practice and how they would like it to work in the future. Once you have this information, you can start to break things down. The PI folks can start working the LEAN and Six-Sigma angles on improvement. You wouldn’t believe how many times I have seen the PI folks walk in, work their angles, and walk away with a VASTLY improved clinical line with absolutely no technology enhancements at all. Once PI has worked their magic it is time for IT to come back into the picture. You can then safely evaluate with the real scope of the project is, what value you can really add, and what applications can really do for the provider. Often times you will still add an application, but now you know if will be effective and efficient for the service line.
