Change Management in Health Informatics

Change management is an entire discipline and has a special place in healthcare. If we look specifically at health informatics this might involve the implementation of a new EHR system and the processes that are in place to carry out this task and have clinicians begin to use the new system effectively. In this blog post, I would like to highlight some areas to be aware of when attempting to integrate change management process with a lens on health informatics. When it comes to change management, Kotter’s principles of change management are outlined in an 8 step process:

1. Create a sense of urgency
2. Build a guiding coalition
3. Form a strategic vision and initiatives
4. Enlist a volunteer army
5. Enable action by removing barriers
6. Generate short-term wins
7. Sustain acceleration
8. Institute change

When it comes to deciding to change processes there needs to be a clear understanding as to why this change has to be made NOW, what will be the potential negative future effects if things remain the same?

By communicating this urgency to clinical stakeholders and involving them in determining the feasibility of changing existing processes, this will make it clear to them as to why this change needs to happen based on your defined schedule.

Also, it is important to be aware of who you have on your committee of advisors that are steering these changes. There should be a good balance of clinical and technical staff who can offer unique perspectives, if for instance, one is planning on implementing a new EHR system in the hospital. This would also be a good time, to identify clinical staff who could act in a super-user role. This would mean they would get advanced training on the technical tool being implemented and can act in a training role for clinical staff for this new tool.

When defining goals on how you hope this project will pan out, one could use SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound) goals, to plan. This will help when being transparent with both the internal team and the wider audience who will be using this tool.

Kotter’s principles makes mention of the need to generate short-wins. In my opinion, this goes a long way in ensuring the project will succeed. Oftentimes we might have an idea and a concrete plan of how we want the project to turn out but the project can be derailed by scope creep and events that are out of our control. However, a few quick wins that the project team can point to, not only for themselves but for management, can help to overcome the drag of feeling no progress is being made or we are way behind the project schedule.

Sometimes, healthcare organization will work with 3rd party vendors to implement new software systems. It should be clearly understood how these systems will be maintained and reviewed overtime by both the vendors and the healthcare IT staff.

These are just some of my thoughts on change management with a lens on health informatics.