The AMDIS Connection | Alls Fair In Love and Business?
There is a Charlton Heston quote I have always remembered: The secret to a great marriage is a great husband. I like telling my wife I have followed his advice. What is more difficult to unravel is what makes great employers and employees in health IT.
I am lucky to work at a great hospital, dedicated to high-quality patient care and operating with strategy and vision. The hospital sought out a grand stage for our new EMR, making the system a vehicle to positively change how we go about the business of patient care.
The decision was made to proceed with a "big bang" go-live, which required a significant ramp up in IT employee infrastructure. Throughout implementation, we worked through a severe shortage of health IT talent. We searched across the U.S. for individuals aligned with our vision and hired dozens from our operations department, including myself. We suffered employee loss during the implementation for a variety of reasons. We filled in gaps with expensive, but usually highly competent consultants.
As go-live neared, things settled down and we had achieved a hard-working, productive core group. Our employees were pushed hard to meet the implementation date. During implementation, we were careful to keep our senior management team aware that we expected "talent flight" after our non-compete period ended.
Our IT administration team met weekly after this transition. Because of defections experienced by other institutions after a big go-live, employee retention is always on the agenda. We knew there was risk, so we engaged the human resources team for advice, conducted engagement surveys, embraced employee bowling parties, meals and gift certificates, along with ensuring that the team knew about our tuition reimbursement and benefits—all wrapped up with consistent recognition and praise.
Ninety days post go-live, we find ourselves stuck between the rock of dwindling state Medicaid funding and the hard place of seeing our IT staff offered compensation rivaling the top executives at our hospital. We were preparing for moderate drop offs, but we were not ready for the wholesale raiding we are facing at the hands of consulting firms. A single firm snatched half of our Op-Time application team; then four weeks later did the same with our anesthesia team.
All's fair in love and business, but I would characterize this consulting firm's practices as smarmy. Spotlighting their methods, however, is pointless since another firm would be right on their heels.
Meanwhile, we lose colleagues and friends while struggling with our ability to provide high-level service. However, on the positive side, this has made us renew our focus. Customer service has become our top priority, as we strive to maintain creative problem solving and collaboration. In challenging times, true character shines, and our teams realize that we are dependent on each other more than ever, and I am watching them rise to the occasion. Every day, I see individuals combine enthusiasm with a sense of humor to overcome technical hurdles, and put their heads down to meet deadlines. I now recognize qualities which make employees excel in health IT. Now, if we could find some more money…
I am lucky to work at a great hospital, dedicated to high-quality patient care and operating with strategy and vision. The hospital sought out a grand stage for our new EMR, making the system a vehicle to positively change how we go about the business of patient care.
The decision was made to proceed with a "big bang" go-live, which required a significant ramp up in IT employee infrastructure. Throughout implementation, we worked through a severe shortage of health IT talent. We searched across the U.S. for individuals aligned with our vision and hired dozens from our operations department, including myself. We suffered employee loss during the implementation for a variety of reasons. We filled in gaps with expensive, but usually highly competent consultants.
As go-live neared, things settled down and we had achieved a hard-working, productive core group. Our employees were pushed hard to meet the implementation date. During implementation, we were careful to keep our senior management team aware that we expected "talent flight" after our non-compete period ended.
Our IT administration team met weekly after this transition. Because of defections experienced by other institutions after a big go-live, employee retention is always on the agenda. We knew there was risk, so we engaged the human resources team for advice, conducted engagement surveys, embraced employee bowling parties, meals and gift certificates, along with ensuring that the team knew about our tuition reimbursement and benefits—all wrapped up with consistent recognition and praise.
Ninety days post go-live, we find ourselves stuck between the rock of dwindling state Medicaid funding and the hard place of seeing our IT staff offered compensation rivaling the top executives at our hospital. We were preparing for moderate drop offs, but we were not ready for the wholesale raiding we are facing at the hands of consulting firms. A single firm snatched half of our Op-Time application team; then four weeks later did the same with our anesthesia team.
All's fair in love and business, but I would characterize this consulting firm's practices as smarmy. Spotlighting their methods, however, is pointless since another firm would be right on their heels.
Meanwhile, we lose colleagues and friends while struggling with our ability to provide high-level service. However, on the positive side, this has made us renew our focus. Customer service has become our top priority, as we strive to maintain creative problem solving and collaboration. In challenging times, true character shines, and our teams realize that we are dependent on each other more than ever, and I am watching them rise to the occasion. Every day, I see individuals combine enthusiasm with a sense of humor to overcome technical hurdles, and put their heads down to meet deadlines. I now recognize qualities which make employees excel in health IT. Now, if we could find some more money…