Readers Write: How to Re-Imagine Clinical IT Support

How to Re-Imagine Clinical IT Support
By Chris Wickersham

Chris Wickersham is assistant VP of customer support at CereCore.

No one would argue that achieving provider satisfaction is a top goal for those of us who work in healthcare IT support. We also know that when employees on your IT support teams are happy, they provide better, higher quality service.

This led me to consider: how could I achieve both clinician satisfaction and employee satisfaction? What if a slightly different approach to IT service desk operations could lead to more efficiency and productivity for my help desk analysts and their satisfaction?

I began my career working as a healthcare IT analyst and have walked the halls of care settings providing support during go-lives. I have experienced first-hand how minutes matter when troubleshooting IT issues and that streamlined clinical workflows allow care teams to deliver higher quality patient care.

My quest to rethink IT support has been evolving over the past several years and has led to the creation of a clinical service desk. We implemented this service desk model with Epic-based facilities at HCA Healthcare. The results have been a win for clinicians and providers because they have been getting their issues resolved more quickly, and my analysts are working at the top of their license, especially those providing level 2 Epic support.

How is this possible? Here’s a peek into the building blocks of my IT support model.

First, spend time analyzing your organization’s goals for IT support and identify common challenges. I wanted to baseline provider, clinician, and even patient satisfaction as it relates to IT issue resolution and the effects on hospital operations. For example, if the hospital routinely experiences issues with printing discharge instructions, that will impact the timeliness of patients being discharged, patient and clinician satisfaction, and the efficiency of patient throughput.

We analyzed metrics from a variety of perspectives. What were the high-volume issues reported by providers, clinicians, and revenue cycle employees? Did we have recurring workflow challenges or training opportunities? What about EHR-build related incidents?

One of the toughest parts for healthcare IT support can be getting back in touch with a provider or clinician for additional information and follow-up. So, we examined the issue intake process for data quality and efficiency. Was enough information or the right type of information being collected during the first call? If we had had better data to begin with, could we have resolved the issue more quickly for a busy provider or clinical staff?

Next, we evaluated the tools and training. Looking at our high-volume issues in particular, would additional analyst training have helped with resolving the issue at the first point of contact? Would a different level of access enable the level 1 analyst the ability to resolve the issue sooner? Did we have an effective IT service management tool that allows for next-level analysis? Were there configuration, knowledge base, or workflow improvements within the ITSM that could help analysts resolve more issues during the first contact?

Healthcare IT is a team sport. That’s why we took a hard look at our culture and looked for ways to encourage more collaboration among all levels of our analysts. In fact, one of the key drivers in the evolution of our clinical service desk for Epic support has been the focus on “shifting left” the issues handled by our level 2 and level 3 analysts.

Our level 2 and level 3 application support and clinical informatics resources were finding it difficult to focus on project work. Their bandwidth for heads-down time to make progress on Epic initiatives often was limited because they were pulled into resolving support issues.

We began finding opportunities to cross-train and collaborate more. We also developed a training program to bolster application and workflow understanding. We made a significant investment in training our analysts through the Epic certification process, focusing on key workflows where we needed to increase our knowledge base and pairing the interests of service desk analysts with Epic certification opportunities. This training and collaboration have been key to making our shift left strategy a reality.

Finally, we established key performance indicators (KPIs) and reporting metrics to measure the effectiveness of training, analyst access changes, and process improvements. I focus on quality measures, such as first-contact resolution and customer satisfaction and the ability to shift support work left from level 2 to level 1.

If your organization is building an internal clinical service desk, prepare for the significant and intentional investment required, along with a willingness to let go and trust the process of building your own talent pipeline. Be ready to measure results so you can ensure you’re reaping the benefits of your investment and configuring your resource model appropriately.

When executed thoughtfully, the benefits of long-term operational efficiencies, improved clinician satisfaction, and happy employees are well worth the effort.