By Suzi Birz, principal, HiQ Analytics
What happens when all new computer systems and processes
arrive at a hospital on the same day? What does it take to prepare and succeed?
This month's Technology Report examines the important role of nurses in Project Genesis, Trinity Health's innovative effort to coordinate the computers in its multihospital system.
In May 2003, Novi,
Michigan-based Trinity Health activated Project Genesis, a $285 million project
to implement common computer systems and best-practices throughout its
23-hospital system, for the first time at Mercy Hospital in Port Huron,
Michigan. The systems include state-of-the-art clinical and revenue cycle
systems with supply chain management systems to follow. Today, a total of six
hospitals have launched these systems and 17 more are planned by 2008. In all,
approximately 44,000 employees and medical staff members will be trained on the
new clinical and revenue cycle systems.
Mary Trimmer, senior
vice president of Project Genesis operations at Trinity Health described the
“big bang” approach being employed at each hospital in the system: “When we flip
to go live on the new systems, employees have access to pharmacy, physician
order entry, electronic health records including nursing clinical documentation
and revenue systems all at once,” Trimmer said.
To succeed, clinical
leadership is mandatory. As senior vice president of patient care services at
Trinity Health, Joy Gorzeman, RN, BSN, MBA, sets the example for clinicians to
take lead roles in the project. Gorzeman learned this lesson first hand. Before
joining Trinity, Gorzeman, while serving as COO/CNO at a hospital implementing a
new clinical system, was offered the opportunity to take a leadership role and
she took it. Gorzeman’s philosophy is that a “strong clinical person is required
at every meeting.”
Scope of Project
Genesis
With a focus on patient
safety and quality of care while improving financial performance, Trinity is
placing an emphasis on evidence-based and best practices as processes are
changed and the system implemented.
Trinity Health’s member
hospitals are varied. The geography is diverse and crosses time zones. Hospital
size ranges from 100 to 500 beds. Some member organizations are multi-hospital
sites. Some are paper-based and some have more advanced computer systems.
The goal remains to
create integrated processes that cross functional boundaries. For instance,
patient orders include order entry, review and fill by pharmacy, cart stock,
administration and charging. While the current state at each site may be unique,
Trimmer explained that “common technology plus common procedures equal best
practice embedded in all member organizations.”
Gorzeman noted that
there may be some variation as required at that site, but more importantly, she
said, “the team is able to use the lessons learned from one site at the next.”
What emerges is “evidence-based and best practices,” she added.
Impact on Nurses
The first thing that
nurses notice is that they spend less time looking for things—charts, labs and
pieces of scrap paper tucked into pockets. With a generous deployment of
computers and mobile devices, nurses are using the computer system to access
information about their patients, enter nursing documentation and make referrals
to other departments, such as social services and occupational therapy. The
patient information is as close as the nearest device.
The primary process
change for nursing is the change to real-time charting using structured
documentation. Nurses are encouraged to take the computer into the patient room
to do charting. In the beginning, documentation takes longer. Trinity Health
recognizes this and staffs up on the units with additional nurses as well as “SuperUsers,”
nurses that have had special training on the system. Some nurses still jot
patient data on small pieces of paper, but Trinity is finding that the nurses
see the potential and are eager to use the system.
As the nurses become
more accustomed to the system, they are able to take advantage of the time saved
to spend more face time with patients. Patient education information is
available on the computers and nurses have the opportunity to teach the patients
about “what is going on with them,” Gorzeman explained.
Benefits of the system
include decreased time spent telephoning ancillary departments, decreased time
looking for information, chart legibility and an opportunity for physician/nurse
collaboration.
“All of these are
positive changes,” added Gorzeman. An informal poll of nurses using the new
systems indicated that while there are improvements they would recommend, they
do not want to go back to paper.
Travel Nurses Provide
Value from Site to Site
Knowing that additional
staffing is required to implement Project Genesis, and that there would not be
enough internal resources to meet the need, Trinity has established
relationships with staffing agencies. As additional sites have “gone live,” it
has been discovered that the staffing need is predictable, both in quantity and
timing. From this experience, Trinity is working on a plan to train a pool of
travel nurses that would be available from site-to-site, leveraging this
training during the implementation period.
Opportunities for
Nurses
Getting ready for the
implementation involves quite a bit of work: 18 to 24 months of preparation.
During this time, Trimmer noted, “a big emphasis is placed on the transformation
process change enabled by the technology.”
Trimmer and Gorzeman
explained that nurses have been instrumental in the transformation:
Nurses have played key
roles in the design of the clinical documentation and the design of the screens.
Nurses have served on procedure groups and councils. Nurses with a keen interest
in the system have become analysts and gotten directly involved in building the
system.
“Nurses can be as
involved as they want to in the local planning efforts,” Trimmer noted.
The opportunities will
increase with time as the data becomes available for quality and patient safety
analyses.
Take-Away Messages
What advice do the
Trinity experts have for nurses working at organizations that are implementing
new systems?
“Nurses should seek
every opportunity to be involved in the preparation, take advantage of every bit
of training and practice opportunities, ask questions, share ideas and support
each other,” Trimmer said.
Gorzeman advised that
nurses and nurse managers be willing to think out of the box and try to really
look at changing processes, rather than doing things the same way as the paper
world.
“Acknowledge the
transition, recognizing that it is going to be different and uncomfortable at
first, and be patient with yourself and with the system,” she added. “As your
comfort level increases, it will get easier.”
For more information
about Project Genesis, visit the
Trinity Health Web site.
© 2005. AMN Healthcare, Inc. All Rights Reserved.