Why Not You?

Another International MUSE Conference is in the history books. All the planning and work during the last year came to fruition and the conference ended as a success.

I don’t usually get to attend the Opening Session, but the stars aligned this year and I was able to be in the audience. The lovely and eloquent Jean Olsen, MUSE Board Chair, spoke about achieving goals and asked, “Why not you?”

During her talk and throughout the conference I saw tweets and posts about this topic. “Why not you?” unofficially developed into the conference theme.

As I continued through the week I heard about many retirements and job changes. It seems to be a time of transition for MUSE, a season to bring in new blood, an opportunity to refresh and reenergize the organization.

I think every unit, be it families, companies, churches, any group - at one time or another experiences a shift. The shift is inevitable because that’s life. But what we can control is how we respond.

MUSE is different from so many other organizations. Though it sounds cliché, MUSE really is truly about its members. We have a vey small staff to run the operations, and everything else is dependent upon the involvement of the membership.

All the education, all the networking, all the programs - they happen because of you, the MUSE members. 

Take a look at the conference photos (and tag yourself!): 2014 International MUSE Conference Photos.

You will see all kinds of people with all kinds of backgrounds. Everyone here probably had a reason to not attend, or present, or sponsor. But they did, and the conference was successful because of them.

The future of MUSE depends on the next wave of volunteers and presenters, hosts and sponsors, exhibitors and speakers. Do you want to shape the future of MUSE? Do you want to guide this 31-year-old into its next stage? Why not run during the next Board election? Why not launch or lead your own Community Peer Group? Why not present that webinar?

Why not you?

The next post will feature the top-rated presentations – stay tuned.

Take care friends,

Alicia

The Common Denominator

My favorite genre of literature is the biography. Thrilling, I know. I am currently reading a biography about Nikola Tesla, but in addition to Tesla’s life, the author of this book explores one common denominator of great people throughout history. Those great people include inventors, musicians, scientists, writers, and artists – those who made history and a lasting impact by creating or discovering. What is that something that all creators and pioneers possess that makes them able to excel?

Is it IQ? Nope, not exclusively.  Upbringing? Certainly not. Finances? Not at all. Personality? Not really.

Give up? Research and studies show that a clear common denominator is imagination!

 

Most of the things that are a part of your life were once a part of someone else’s imagination. Your iPhone, your favorite song, your car, even Pizza Hut - they only exist because someone imagined them, and then drove that dream into realty.

Yet imagination is more commonly associated with childhood rather than a grown-up tool. If I had a nickel for every time I heard, “Use your imagination” as a child … I would have about $11.65, but you get my point. As adults, I think we look at the imagination as a fanciful, Disney-ish concept, not really a useful entity in day-to-day living.

MUSE friends, you are certainly developing “life’s coming attractions.” You are creating, developing and imagining your way to better healthcare. Reflect about what most of you are doing each day in healthcare IT. Do you ever try to find a better way to do something? Do you work to create a more effective process? Do you think about how something could be possible that is not yet? Maybe not individually (or maybe!) you are all impacting healthcare and stamping your creations in history.

Back to the book I am reading - most of these historical figures also surrounded themselves with others who were working toward the same or similar goals.  Yes, they attended conferences and regularly met with peers. They pooled their imaginations for even better outcomes.

“Creativity is just connecting things.” - Steve Jobs. There is no better catalyst for creating and discovering solutions than to collaborate with others who are on the same path. Connecting with people who encounter similar problems and challenges opens new avenues. As a MUSE member, the International Conference is the premier event for you to connect, create, discover and imagine with your peers.

The 2014 conference includes sessions on just about every topic that a healthcare IT professional in a MEDITECH world could imagine! I challenge you to explore the agenda and not find at least several sessions or topics that directly apply to you. Take a look: 2014 Educational Sessions. Of course, the majority of the value of the conference probably would come from your informal conversation in the hallway with that person who just happens to be doing exactly what you’re doing.

And there is also one major surprise in store for you this year. It’s something that has taken a little bit of imagination to develop – but I hope you will all be thrilled with this new addition. Are you curious? Well, stay tuned!

Coming Soon!

See you in Dallas; come ready to use your imagination!

- Alicia

 

Get Comfortable Being Uncomfortable

Guest Poster, Sherry Montileone, Network and Support Manager, Citizens Memorial Hospital



 

My name is Sherry Montileone and I won the 2013 MUSE IEE competition.   I’m writing this article to tell you about the experience and, hopefully, get you interested in doing something “uncomfortable.” I hope you make 2014 the year to step outside your MUSE comfort zone and present, compete, serve on the board, become a peer leader, or maybe just attend the conference for the first time.

Q.  How do I participate in the IEE competition? 

A.   Detailed instructions are on the MUSE website, www.museweb.org.   It is as simple as submitting a presentation with broad appeal and being selected as an IEE finalist. When you submit your abstract, just select the option to compete in the IEE contest. You will attend the International MUSE Conference like any other attendee with the exception that your audience will contain judges (sounds scary – but you won’t know who they are).   The competition winner is announced at the closing ceremony.   If you win, you get an all expenses paid trip to present at the MUSE EU conference.    

Q.   Had you ever presented at MUSE before?  

A.   Yes, a couple of times.   I actually entered the IEE competition in 2012 and withdrew (i.e. chickened out) before the presentation deadline.   I presented that year, but not as an IEE participant. 

Q.  Did you have professional help with your presentation?

A.  No.  I had grand plans about doing so (animation, audience participation tool, etc.) – but I ran out of time and just gave a plain old PowerPoint.     The basis of my presentation was how we use technology to achieve the goals of our healthcare system’s strategic plan.   I think that resonated with people.

Q.  Did you practice your presentation and were you scared when you gave it?

A.  Yes and Yes!   I worked on and tweaked my presentation until I was almost sick.  The more I looked at it, the less I knew.  Giving a presentation is uncomfortable – but it makes you think and research and practice and learn.  

Q.  What was the MUSE EU conference like?  

A.  I loved it.  The EU conference is smaller and more personal.  It lasts two days and has fewer presentations (~ 4 / day). 

Q.  Did you learn anything at the EU conference?

A.   Yes!    And, a highlight was spending the afternoon at Alder Hey Hospital with their FABULOUS staff learning how they use MEDITECH and PACS in the National Health System.  

Q.  Were you uncomfortable traveling abroad / attending alone?  

A.  A little – but that’s part of the fun.    MUSE offered to take care of my travel arrangements – but I made them myself since I was extending my trip.    I flew into Manchester, took the train to Liverpool and attended the conference.   When the conference was over, I took the train to London, picked up my two adult daughters at Heathrow and we spent 3 days in London, Eurostar’d to France and spent 3 days in Paris.   There were plenty of times I was a little uncomfortable navigating the trains, different language, currency, etc. – but, hey, I’m getting comfortable being uncomfortable…

Centura Health and the 5.66 Upgrade Project – thoughts from the key participants …

Guest Poster
Jean Olsen, RN BSN,
 Program Manager 5.66 Upgrade Project

Centura Health took the MEDITECH C/S 5.66 upgrade as part of its move toward MU 2 and also to add enhancements or fixes that are designed to provide improved functionality.  Additionally, 5.66 PP 5 was included so that the ONC (Oncology) application could be implemented with many new design features.

Centura Health is a healthcare organization located in Colorado and Western Kansas.  We currently have 16 hospital facilities, more than 200 physician based clinics, home health, and seven long term care facilities.  In 2006 our journey to MEDITECH as the EHR began, with an emphasis to standardize all components of documentation and ancillaries throughout the system.  We have ONE patient database and ONE MIS, therefore, when we do an upgrade, we have to do so with all facilities at the same time.  CPOE and Physician Documentation have currently allowed three Centura facilities to reach HIMSS Stage 7.

As the Project Manager for this and many of the previous upgrade projects I wanted to make this be more of a Centura-wide project and not keep it at an IT base.  Therefore, the eight project status meetings were held with nearly 135 people invited to attend.  These included our IT Analysts, IT Technical and Infrastructure groups, IT Help Desk personnel, Physician Trainers, IT Clinical Trainers, Physicians, CMOs and CIs from the various facilities and our upgrade and account executives from MEDITECH.

Our project began in May 2013 and concluded with our go LIVE on 10/27/13.  We included the following functionality with our go LIVE: Multi-Disciplinary Discharge Process; IMO for Problem List and Clinical Impressions; Family Health History; Mammography Desktop as well as a multitude of additional enhancements throughout all the applications.  By including many of the above listed personnel, we were able to include them in the design, testing, training, and go LIVE support process.  This proved to be very beneficial as we realized, after just the first few status meetings, the impact this inclusion made.

Go LIVE support included: IT Phone Triage and Command Center, Physician support Command Center, Ambulatory (LSS) support/training Command Center.  Traditionally, we had only the IT Phone Triage and Command Center, but we found that including a special group to provide “answers and on demand training” separate from these IT groups was very beneficial.

I met with two of our participants and the Upgrade Coordinator from MEDITECH and conducted a brief interview regarding details of the experience:

Interviewer:

Jean Olsen, RN BSN, Program Manager 5.66 Upgrade Project

 

Interviewees:

Jen Alexander, RN BSN Clinical Informaticist and Lead Coordinator of the Multi-Disciplinary Discharge process

Dr. Patrick Sankovitz, Director Physician Informatics

Sharon Soos, IT Analyst for the MPM (LSS) Ambulatory Component of MEDITECH.

Jean Olsen: What is the most beneficial enhancement made available in the C/S 5.66 upgrade? And how has this enhanced practice for your care providers?

Jen Alexander: The most beneficial enhancement for the clinical staff is the multi-disciplinary discharge routine. This process encourages collaboration as well as the use of technology.  The fact that the entire discharge process can be done via the desktop is very accommodating. The patient packet is very patient friendly, the medications are formatted in a way that is very clear to the patient. 

Dr Sankovitz: I agree with Jen.  MDDP has raised the providers’ awareness of the team aspects of patient management.  It has provided them a “one-stop shopping” opportunity for discharge-related activities.

Sharon Soos: Ambulatory – When looked at from the patient’s point of view, the Patient Visit Summary rises to the top.  The patient leaves the office with a document about the encounter, including medications, medical problems, future appointments, health goals, educational material and several more items of information for the patient.

We included MEDITECH on all our 5.66 Upgrade Project Status Calls.  What benefit did this provide?

Jen Alexander: Not sure there was a direct benefit for me. I do think it was helpful for the analyst.

Dr Sankovitz: This was helpful because there was a sense of efficiency … access to immediate confirmation on issues, plus a confidence that right hands knew what left hands were doing.

Sharon Soos: As an analyst, this was extremely beneficial since the review of an issue often led to other questions and a better understanding of the functionality including any limitations to the functionality.

The upgrade implementation began in May 2013 with the development of the 5.66 PP1 TEST ring, and concluded on October 27th with our go LIVE.  We also took a Priority Pack update PP 2-4 and a PP 5 in September.   What are your thoughts about this timeline? 

Dr Sankovitz: My part in the timeline was too short. There was in reality a very narrow window between access to the “final” product in TEST and when we had to train end-users.  We were still discovering functionality issues as we went live.  Would have preferred two more weeks, minimum, when we could have been more robust in our testing and, therefore, could have brought more consistent and accurate teaching to the end-users.

Sharon Soos: We were ok with the time following the original load and PP 2-4.  Perhaps having more time for PP 5 for testing would have eased the feeling of having to scramble to be ready.

Please send your questions about the Centura Health 5.66 upgrade project to: education@museweb.org. 

 

Next Post: MUSE International - the IEE Experience!

 

Life's a (Newport) Beach!

Although at the recent MUSE event, we learned that it is no day at the beach for many users working feverously to 5.66, Meaningful Use, Patient Portals, CPOE, ICD-10, and a host of other timely topics.

Fortunately, MUSE offered an array of pertinent educational presentations to assist besieged users.



A bustling exhibit area offered attendees opportunities to learn about solutions.

The event started with presenters Kelly Wildhaber and Tito Perez – both from Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital in Valencia, California – providing their MEDITECH 5.66 early adopter experiences. It’s always enlightening to hear from those leading the pack!


A subsequent panel of experienced 5.66 users was well-received as they addressed numerous inquiries from the audience.

Thanks to these panelists:

• Dr. Lawrence Losey, CMIO, Parkview Adventist Medical Center, Brunswick, Maine

• Heather Banker-Matzke, Program Manager, Centura Health, Englewood, Colorado

• T.J. Temple, Manager I.T. Applications, Ozarks Medical Center, West Plains, Missouri

• Christina Reynolds, RNC, Clinical Analyst, Bozeman Deaconess Hospital, Bozeman, Montana

• Kelly Wildhaber, Director ARRA-HiTech Compliance, Privacy Officer, Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital, Valencia, California

• Tito Perez, Information Services Manager, Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital, Valencia, California

• Jean Olsen (Facilitator), Program Manager, Centura Health, Englewood, Colorado

The Physician Peer Group Meeting proved popular too.

 Dr. Vikram Kumar from Arrowhead Regional Medical Center in Colton, California kindly facilitated a robust meeting, supported adeptly by Dr. Patrick Sankovitz (Centura Health, Englewood, Colorado) and Dr. Lawrence Losey (Parkview Adventist Medical Center, Brunswick, Maine). Discussions touched on a variety of issues including patient safety, and practitioner satisfaction, efficiency and productivity.

Chris Burke, a Clinical Analyst at Boulder Community
Hospital, offered a well-received presentation during the event.

Other highlights:

Education presentations on technology trends, business continuity, disaster recovery, and cloud strategies – all part of the Technology Track (sponsored by Park Place International).

Meaningful Use topics – Stage 1; Stage 2; audits – offered within the Meaningful Use Track (sponsored by the Institute of Health Metrics).

More than 80 Commercial members showed their wares and visited with the attendees. We thank the exhibitors for their support and participation.

 

 

 The positive reviews confirmed that the MUSE event was “beachy” keen!

 

 

Alan Sherbinin
MUSE CEO
muse@museweb.org

 

 

 

The MUSE Harvest - Happy Fall, Y’all!

Pumpkin drinks, crunchy leaves, cooling weather, cute boots … these are typical associations with fall, at least for me. But, traditionally the fall season marked the time of harvest (not just improved fashion and seasonally-themed lattes). The transition signaled the gathering of ripe crops for enjoyment and sustenance through the winter months. Many civilizations celebrated (and still celebrate) this season with festivals, feasts and parties. 

In keeping with tradition, MUSE offers a variety of fall programs, ripe and ready for harvest! For example, the event in Newport Beach embodies a cornucopia (sorry, couldn’t resist) of topics most pertinent in healthcare IT.The menu includes:

• MEDITECH 5.66 Upgrade (both Client Server and Magic)

• Patient Portals

• Meaningful Use

• ICD-10

• CPOE

• Technology

You can check out this event here: Newport Beach Event. 

Webinars
Sometimes a forum discussion continues to grow and receive so much attention, that it develops into a presentation. That is the case with the October 29 webinar. This webinar, Unit Clerk Utilization with CPOE, describes Upper Chesapeake Health Systems’ unique checklist for unit secretaries during a CPOE go-live, and demos the role the unit secretary plays in alerting nursing for STAT CPOE orders and how they are responsible for “Managing the Transfer” of patients. 

You can register for this webinar here:  Unit Clerk Utilization with CPOE

Also, these topics were recently offered, but you can get access to the recordings to watch at your convenience:-

• The ARRA Journey – So, you thought you were through with Stage 1?
• MU Stage 2: The Transition from Quality Measurement to Informatics
• MEDITECH 5.66 – The Early Adopter Experience and Go-Live
• The ARRA Project – Quest to Attest Using Project Management Tools 

Many other webinars and Peer Group JAM sessions are in the works for the coming months; watch for announcements and website updates. And if you are looking for something you don’t see listed, just let me know.

                    Other Events

Additionally - a few fall offerings have already occurred, and if you did not attend, here’s what you missed (and what you can look forward to in the future): 

Ontario Shores Event
More than 20 MUSE attendees gathered on September 18 at Ontario Shores Centre for Mental Health Sciences and learned how the facility uses the MEDITECH 6.07 platform to support Inter-professional care delivery and achieve Stage 6 and Stage 7 of the HIMSS EMRAM model. 

This program, generously sponsored by Dell Services, offered tremendous value to attendees, as evidenced in feedback: 

“It was very valuable event; it was helpful to see how another facility is utilizing the system, especially 6.07.” 

“It was interesting to see the customization of menus and reports that Ontario Shores had to do - great value in this event.” 

“Good insight from Ontario Shores specifically regarding benefit and vision from the physician perspective. The adoption slides were very compelling as well.” 

“MUSE events like these are a valuable way to hear lessons learned from peer organizations. It makes sense to learn from each other vs. solving problems in a bubble.  These events encourage collaboration which we need to see more of in healthcare.” 

Thank you to Ontario Shores for offering this event and to Dell Services for your sponsorship! 

MAKIN IT Community Peer Group
The MAKIN IT Community Peer Group, comprised of Missouri, Arkansas, Kansas, Iowa and Nebraska hospitals, met for the second time in Clinton, Missouri on October 15 to discuss topics such as surveillance boards, patient portals, PCS rules writing, evidence-based order sets and more. 

Thanks to the generous sponsorship by Park Place International, more than 50 attendees were able to gather for this meeting free of charge! This vibrant group plans to continue meeting and promoting collaboration within the region. 

“This was awesome, great networking with other sites that are or have been through processes we are working on.” 

“Small meetings like this are great because it gives everyone the ability to speak to the problems or ask questions.” 

“Finding solutions from other locations was very helpful.” 

“Great opportunity to network with similar hospitals in our region.”

“Good ideas from other hospitals, especially hearing other problems/issues we haven't addressed yet.”

Thank you to the MAKIN It Leaders for working so hard to make this program happen: 

Alexa Thompson RN, Clinical Systems Analyst, Golden Valley Memorial Hospital

Kim Maples RN, Systems Analyst, Citizens Memorial Hospital 

Peer Group JAM Sessions
Have you tried an online Peer Group JAM session yet? These have become one of the most popular MUSE programs. Sponsored by Dell Services, these FREE sessions encourage open dialogue and discussion about pertinent topics.

The most recent ones offered set records in numbers of attendees!

• Magic 5.66 Multidisciplinary Discharge Routine
• Client Server 5.66 Multidisciplinary Discharge Routine
• UPT Utilization in 5.66 

So, take a break from raking your leaves and sipping your pumpkin spice drink, join your peers and participate in the “MUSE harvest” by attending the Newport Beach event or one of the upcoming webinars. 

Cheers!
Alicia

MEDITECH 5.66 Upgrade Journal Part 2

The Canary is Still Singing …

MEDITECH 5.66 Upgrade Journal - Part 2

Guest Poster:

Adnan Hamid, Director, IT Services

Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital, Valencia, CA

 

 

Last month, MUSE posted my C/S 5.66 Upgrade journal as part of the MUSE Matters blog.  Based on reader feedback, it was a hit … more like close to 1,500 hits to the blog. I also received emails from readers about the post and many follow-up questions regarding the upgrade.  So I thought I would consolidate the questions for this follow up article to the MUSE Matters blog.
 

Q:	Any other issues that you have seen since the journal blog was posted?
A:	Yes, we did have an issue with ORM reports not flowing into the EMR.  Based on MEDITECH’s review of the issue, HUB is attempting to grab the reports off the SCH HUB queue to bring the reports over to HUB so they can go to the EMR. It should be using the old numbering system to read the data, but the correct flags are not being set to do so. Thus, it's attempting to read in a "Holding" report when it should be reading an "Anesthesia" report. Since there's nothing entered for Holding reports in the OR parameters, it's crashing every time.  In order to determine the root cause, MEDITECH disabled the SCH OR EMR Midnight Run Queue.  MEDITECH is has submitted SCH DTS 13156 to help clean up the duplicate and mismatched reports in LIVE.  We are still awaiting the delivery of this DTS.   We also had an issue with the Hospital Central supply unable to produce a correct pick list. MEDITECH uploaded DTS CS MM 3389 which corrected this issue for another hospital. It was moved into our LIVE system on July 17th.  This DTS resolved the issue.   We have noticed that since the 5.66 upgrade on 6/18, all of our notification alerts from mtalert@henrymayo.com show a timestamp of 7 hour behind of the actual delivery.  MEDITECH is still investigating the issue.
Q:	Did you notice after your code overlay that when filing items in LIVE, you get a pop-up window that displays and disappears in a matter of a second or two?
A:	We did not notice any pop up window.  The user that submitted the question updated me stating that the pop up window occurred on clients that are 3-tier.  If the client is 2-tier, no issue.
Q:	How long did you allow for testing of the DTS?
A:	We had full day testing sessions to test out the major DTS for the upgrade.  We had three integrated testing sessions along with one parallel testing session for the upgrade.
Q:	What version were you on before the upgrade?
A:	We were on version 5.65 PP11.
Q:	Did you stop all build during the testing time?
A:	No.
Q:	Since the upgrade, have you noticed any issues with the new discharge routine?
A:	We are planning to utilize the new discharge routine as part of our PCM Phase 2 Go-Live in October 2013.  We’ve been having some issues, but MEDITECH has been pretty responsive in past 2-3 weeks getting us DTS fixes for them…a couple are still outstanding. Our continued meds, scripts, etc. are displaying in the routine and in the Patient Visit Summary appropriately.

 

Do you want to hear my upgrade experience live? I am presenting at the Newport Beach MUSE Event, November 11 -13. You can register to attend here: Newport Beach Event.

 

Stay tuned for Part 3 of my 5.66 Upgrade Journal … Issues and Challenges with the Discharge Routine. 

 

 

Adnan Hamid

Director, IT Services

Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital, Valencia, CA