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The Best Way to Manage Your EMR Project

Guest post by: Peter Polack

Article Overview: To attain best results with your electronic medial records (EMR) implementation plan, a certified project manager should lead the effort. By managing time, scope, and budget while planning to adapt to unforeseeable events, your practice's implemenation plan can last through the trials and end up a success.

The Best Way to Manage Your EMR Project

Last summer, Ocala, a city in central Florida, was struck by two of the four hurricanes which barrelled through that year. Long power outages and significant structural damage caused many practices to close; some of the coastal practices couldn't even conduct surgeries for several weeks after the hurricanes.

Our original time line placed our electronic medical records (EMR) system launch date at late summer 2005. Unfortunately, the effect of the hurricanes forced us to push the date back two months. This delay also coincided with some other big events at the practice: the construction of another satellite office and the addition of a new associate. We knew that the success of the EMR project would require an ongoing commitment of time and resources - we opted to move the go-live date to the beginning of 2006.

Frank E. Polack, president of the Project Management Institute (PMI) chapter in Atlanta, helps explain how a project manager can help an EMR plan integrate unforeseeable events. Implementation of a sound change management plan is a huge factor in ensuring the success of a project.

A great change management project can ensure that an office culture will successfully adapt to a new system; implementation requires an overseeing Project Manager (PM). The Project Management Institute (PMI) defines a project as a "temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product or service." Most system vendors have their own PM assigned; you may want to consider this option as well.

It's a good idea to begin with a Project Charter. The Charter documents exactly why we're doing what we are doing, what we're implementing, the anticipated schedule, and the budget. The Project Charter should also include potential risks, constraints, and outline concurrent projects along with their anticipated milestones.

Microsoft Project is another great scheduling tool. Really, even Microsoft Excel can be used for task tracking. It's a good idea to keep a log which includes the probability, projected impacts, and mitigation plans for certain risks. This scheduler should include an issue log where items that require attention are entered. The PMI publishes standards including important knowledge areas for a project manager, who should be employing processes from the nine areas to ensure full project coverage.

Of the nine areas, three are identified as triple constraints. These triple restraints are: Cost (Budget), Scope (Work), and Time (Schedule). If any of these are changed, the others will also be affected. For example, increasing the scope of the project will result in an increase in time and cost. By attempting to lower the cost, the quality must be lowered and the scope will need to decrease. Possessing fewer resources can mean it will take more time to complete the work. It's important to stay conscious of dependencies, as in when task B cannot be started until task A is done.

Quality Management requires making intermittent inspections to be sure that you are implementing strategies which satisfy established requirements. Simply waiting to see if everything turns out is a bad idea.

Integration Management

Includes all elements listed above, along with assurance that they are managed during the entire project cycle.

Procurement Management

Understand vendor contracts and the terms you're entering into, be it cost-plus, fixed-price, or time & materials.

Communication Management

What must be communicated, and to whom and how? Important team members may require frequent updates, while others receive information less often. Will updates be distributed by memo or e-mail? When will meetings take place, and who should attend?

Risk Management

Identify, qualify and account for potential impacts. Next calculate costs in terms of schedule and money. A risk management plan should be developed to deal with identifying and mitigating potential risks as they occur. Risks should be monitored regularly, as something with a low probability may have a greater potential for impact later on.

Human Resources Management

Who are the SMEs, the subject matter experts? Who's on the project team? Will the manager have full authority over the allocated resources?

Project managers can reduce the pains and costs associated with implementation. They are available for hire, and your local PMI chapter can be a great place to start if you're trying to find the right one for your plan.

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Article Tags: change management, charter documents, concurrent projects, electronic medical records, management plan, management project, microsoft excel, microsoft project, office culture, pmi chapter, polack, power outages, project charter, project management institute, project management institute pmi, satellite office, scheduling tool, system implementation, system vendors, time line



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