Background

The client is a market leader in the healthcare industry. Based in Fort Collins, Colorado, the organization provides comprehensive consulting services and software to hospitals, clinics, and care facilities around the world. The software and associated methodology provides healthcare providers with the skill and information necessary to manage staff workload for optimum patient care. As governmental regulations have continued to place a burden on healthcare providers, this solution supplies them with the valuable information they need to optimize staff levels, improve the quality of care, measure outcomes, manage liability, and plan for future growth/transformation.

Challenge

Historically, the implementation process for the products and methodology has been lengthy and labor intensive for both the company and hospital personnel. This has led to a market perception that the solution is too costly and threatens its market sustainability. The release of the new product suite offers an opportunity to re-invent the way clients receive benefit from the company’s solutions. The organization’s leadership began working with a select set of new clients who have are awaiting implementation. As the organization evolves, the method for implementation, training and support of the products and methodology is indicated.

Solution

Spitfire was engaged to observe implementations in the US and Canada with the goal of identifying opportunities for process optimization that would result in a 40-60% decrease in time and cost. To achieve this, a Spitfire Solutions Manager joined the client’s personnel on site during a standard implementation. During these visits, the current implementation process was identified by observing personnel performing their work and by interviewing hospital staff. Additionally on site activities included client meetings, product demonstrations and data gathering sessions. Spitfire also met with executive management in advance of and after on-site visits to elicit their feedback and insight. The results of this engagement show that the company has not established a formal implementation process for the products. As a result, each implementation is highly customized and may result in installation inconsistencies. This has made the implementations difficult to predict and plan. The result of this informal and undocumented process is that implementations are lengthy and costly.

Results

The solution was delivered in two phases. First, Spitfire worked with client leadership to introduce project management best practices including standardized project schedules, communication plans, project documentation, client expectation management and project governance. A project management training session was created for implementation managers to establish baseline proficiency and ensure consistency. The second phase included construction of a client portal that allows clients to enter their own set-up data and view project status. The portal contains training materials and FAQs that provides answers to the questions that hospital staff members most frequently ask. The software implementation timeline was reduced by 67% and will further elevate the organization as the undisputed leader in workload management for healthcare professionals.