Gaining ground
Colleagues,
I am delighted to congratulate the VA Central Ohio Healthcare System’s leadership and staff on a successful first week of go-live. I have heard multiple anecdotes and seen firsthand the commitment and positive attitude exhibited by site personnel all week.
Our transition to the new electronic health record (EHR) also received positive media coverage from the local NBC news affiliate. I am excited to see how the team carries this momentum into the second week of the EHR implementation in Columbus, Ohio.
I also recognize that go-live has brought its share of challenges. This is why leadership from the Electronic Health Record Modernization Integration Office (EHRM IO) is making it a priority to fully understand the life cycle of a problem or issue. How and when end users are being contacted after an issue is resolved is just as important as resolving the issue itself. With a transition of this magnitude, it is important not to lose sight of the people experiencing the change.
When personnel encounter an issue and submit a help desk ticket, their supervisors are also notified. This ensures we have multiple levels of VA teams following up with Cerner to ensure each ticket is sufficiently resolved.
Last week, Cerner held two education sessions that showed Veterans how to use VA’s new patient portal, My VA Health, which is replacing My HealtheVet. The events were held at the National Veterans Memorial and Museum in Columbus, and a total of 130 Veterans attended. From what I have heard, the Veterans did well using the new patient portal and were grateful for the sessions.
During this transition to the new EHR system, patient safety remains my top priority. My focus on this subject is unwavering. So, I was encouraged to hear from Dr. Marc Cooperman, interim director of the VA Central Ohio Healthcare System, that patient safety concerns related to go-live have mostly been put to rest.
I look forward to sharing with you more details on the progress of the EHR implementation and lessons learned from the facility next week in our last edition of The RoundUP.
EHR data from the 14 days of go-live
Here are some statistics, current as of May 9, as we wrap the first week of going live in Columbus:
- Providers are significantly reducing their time in the EHR to document visits, which is an important measure of successful adoption.
- The facility is doubling its clinical appointments; in fact, the percent of ambulatory visits seen within 30 minutes increased to 74%, which is amazing for the first week of go-live.
- Urgent care center throughput is below 50%, which is below the national goal and is close to where it was before deployment.
- Turnaround time for STAT labs is better than it was before deployment. This is true at all three VA facilities using the new EHR.
- Anesthesiologists saw their first general anesthesia case and were very happy with the system.
- Gastroenterology and oncology departments achieved 100% wristband and medication scanning.
- 100% of medication workflows for ambulatory appointments were compliant with barcode medication administration standards for respiratory therapy.
- We continue to see an upward trend in the number of active end users, with the most recent daily total reported at 779.
- The Columbus facility’s EHRM education series began this week. These daily meetings provide an opportunity for end users to review key information about the new EHR workflows and ask Cerner associates questions. Ninety people attended on the first day.
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A portal to better health
Veterans attend an education session to learn how to navigate the new My VA Health patient portal, part of VA’s new electronic health record system, on May 5 at the National Veterans Memorial and Museum in Columbus, Ohio. The event showed Veterans how to log in to their accounts and use My VA Health to access important health information and services online for care provided within the VA Central Ohio Healthcare System.
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Quote of the day
“It is to be expected to have minor bumps in the road, but we have been able to work side by side as a team to safely and efficiently provide our Veterans the care they deserve. With weeks of preparation, continued support from leadership, and encouragement, we have high hopes for a successful transition.”
April Mallory, Gastrointestinal Endoscopy Nurse VA Central Ohio Healthcare System
Patient portal highlights
My VA Health is the new online patient portal for Veterans that allows VA clinicians, staff and community care providers to access a Veteran’s full medical history on a single platform. Approximately 53,000 Veterans are enrolled for care in the entire catchment area, with nearly 36,000 users having received services in fiscal year 2021. The information below includes data from May 9. This is the most current report for the VA Central Ohio Healthcare System Go-Live, and data will be rolled up in the My VA Health monthly report moving forward.
Media highlights
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VAColumbus
Twitter: https://twitter.com/VAColumbus
Three questions for Dr. Paresh Timbadia
Dr. Paresh Timbadia, a pulmonologist and lead provider champion for VA’s new electronic health record (EHR) system, has worked at the VA Central Ohio Healthcare System for over two years. In addition to his time using VA’s legacy EHR, he has, over the course of his career, worked with “all the major players in the inpatient and outpatient world.”
He has used more than five different EHR systems, making him no stranger to VA’s current transition to a new system. Timbadia said his experience puts him in a good position to help co-workers through the challenges that come with a new system transition, and he remains confident the new EHR will ultimately improve Veteran care.
Now that you’ve started using the new EHR system, how has this improved the services you provide to Veterans? It will make care quick and timely, and patient communication much better. Charting and ordering will become easier. Charting is not just writing notes; it is about communicating with Veterans. The Message Center patient portal communicates bidirectionally with staff and Veterans. And Veterans have better access. They can communicate directly with us and order stuff from the portal.
What’s your favorite feature of the new system? It is a much more colorful system, which makes it more “eye-friendly.” In CPRS [the Computerized Patient Record System], you can’t change colors. It is just yellow and white. After 16 hours of working, it causes lots of eye strain. Why do we like iPads compared to other tablets? Because the layout is more user-friendly. Same apps, same functionality. It is how it looks and how it feels. It has to be ergonomic and has to be user-friendly. This system is eye-friendly.
What message would you pass along to your colleagues getting ready to implement the new system? They have to practice. Practice will make it so much more painless. If you don’t practice where all the buttons are, you will struggle during go-live.
All providers have access to a sandbox domain. Use it to build that muscle memory. The advantage with [the] sandbox is that nothing is live, so you are not putting in a real order anywhere, but just practicing. Find time wherever you can — weekends, nights, at lunch. Just 10 and 15 minutes here and there. Attend as many trainings and sessions as possible. There is mandatory training, but beyond that, people have to take initiative and practice.
It’s like [Microsoft] Windows upgrades every other year. The thing you struggle with in the beginning is where to find things. Once your eyes are set and you have muscle memory, you will be able to find anything easily. Keep [training] here and there, starting 10 to 12 weeks before go-live.
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Helpful links
Past issues of The RoundUP
About EHRM (external site)
EHRM VA Insider (internal site)
Columbus VA EHRM SharePoint
My VA Health patient portal | VA Central Ohio Healthcare System | Veterans Affairs
Did you find this information helpful? Do you have questions? We welcome your feedback at EHRMGoLive@va.gov.
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