Mahaska Webinar - Q&A

Last month, Kristi Roose from Mahaska Health Partnership joined me for a live webinar that discussed deploying SSO and Strong Authentication, and the steps you can take to get to Meaningful Use faster. If you missed the webinar, you won't want to miss this -- we've gone ahead and transcribed our answers from the Q&A session.

Question 1:
How long did it take to roll a unit out to all the departments and how long did it take to see acceptance to the change?

• Answer: We approached these rollouts one unit at a time, and the time frame depended on the number of users. Usually it took about 1-2 weeks per unit to make sure that everyone was comfortable with the product. Once the unit was rolled out acceptance was immediate; customers were grateful for the product and relieved to be able to access data more easily. It was a relief for their workflow. (KR)

Question 2:
In regards to the SSO, do you still have to set it up for the users to have to change their passwords, say every 90 days or so?

• Answer: Imprivata takes two measures in regard to changing passwords. Imprivata’s system is able to change passwords automatically. Dependant on the application, sometimes it is required, and as of now, we are looking at testing some technology that Imprivata has to help us out with that piece. We do both; the system changes passwords automatically in some instances and users manually change them in others. (KR)

Question 3:
What is the turnaround time for new access to sign on and how do you handle floaters or per-diem workers?

• Answer: Turn around time for new hires is generally about 2 weeks, if possible, due to a variety of application set ups and processing that we have internally. The Single Sign-On piece itself and authentication specifically to our EMR system is a very fast process and; we can certainly complete that for a user in, say, 10 min. (KR)

Question 4:
How are you advising clients to handle paper charts, scanning documents, etc? What are best practices for this?

• Answer: We’re really focusing on a project team to help us make those decisions. We definitely, in IT at our facility, take the approach that it’s a joint effort. We’re certainly not approaching any of the EMR implementation as an IT project, that’s really what we’re trying to avoid. The different areas have different needs and it’s important that our clinicians work as a team to help make those types of decisions. For us it’s different in each area and it takes a team to decide that (KR)

Question 5:
What are your thoughts on using something like this with the PHI initiative facing health care?

• Answer: Having a tool like this is so important for clinician adoption, particularly as we move toward CPOE for our providers and giving them a tool that takes that burden away. It takes away the burden of authentication, the high-level of security, and the multiple layers of security that we have to have. This tool takes away that burden, which really improved adoption levels with our clinicians. (KR)

Question 6:
How did you handle the training and enrollment of your users, specifically physicians and nurses working on the later shifts?

• Answer: We handled that in two different ways. For the nursing staff we came to the floor and we sat with them for as long as it took to get everyone enrolled. When they had time they could come in and get set up. Physicians were different – we went to their area and were basically on-call for set up. We’d come down when they were done with rounds or had a few minutes in their workflow to get enrolled. Enrollment and set up is a very efficient process, but just fitting that into their schedule was key. (KR)

Question 7:
Do you have any advice on resources that people could turn to for more updated information on the HITECH Act and meaningful use? What resources do you consider valuable?

• Answer: I think the office of the national coordinators website has a lot of what you will actually need. Also I would refer you to HIMSS.org; the HIMSS website. There is a lot of that information on the site and they are well connected. They stay on top of that; I know they do some webinars on that as well. Those are two very reliable sources. There are some consulting firms that will talk about that and give their opinion. I would first start at these two primary sources rather than looking at the whitepapers that you might see through the consultant; not that they are unreliable, but if you can get your info from the primary resources I would highly recommend it. (BC)