On being a “Super User”
I am a “super user”–no, I do lots of drugs, and I don’t use people. Instead, I am wearing a kelly green vest, and wondering around the hospital, helping the “go live” of EPIC at one of the hospitals where I work. It’s kind of fun, really. It’s a lot less stressful when a computer is crashing than when a patient is crashing! However, operating in the business world of a hospital is much different than how we physicians and medical types work. Here is a smattering of observations about the massive undertaking of bringing an EMR into a large, well established, community hospital:
- There is a relentless focus on the positive. At our thrice daily update meetings, the focus has been on what is working and how what is not working will be fixed. There is NOT a lot of whining, or complaining on how stressful it all is, rather the focus is on the huge amounts of things that are going right.
- Gratitude and thanks are plentiful. At our update meetings, people are constantly recognized for their achievements, asked what they need to get the job done, and what resources are needed.
- A “can-do” attitude prevails. Even controversial, challenging and technically complex issues have been met with a “let’s get it done” approach. There is no one saying “it can’t be done”, but instead, “when can we get it done?”
- Extreme planning is evident. Details were planned to the nth degree, with no item too small. Round the clock reports are created, and we have status updates in the morning and evening. It appears to me as if a great deal of resources has been poured into getting feed back from the various departments of the hospital, and implementing changes to improve the system in real time.
- Nurses, physicians, lab staff, radiology etc., were all trained far in advance, making the transition to electronic charting that much easier. The advanced training is supplemented by masses of super users staffing every floor and department to answer questions and iron out glitches.
It makes me a bit wistful–what if my day was always filled with such positive attitudes, team approach, and “yes we can” thinking? I think I would like medicine even more, and would find it a great deal more rewarding. How can we apply these lessons to our day as practitioners?
Your experience almost reminds me of being the CEO at our hospital on that fateful night (Dec 31st 1999), sitting in the “war room” with the troops, awaiting with impatient and bated breath for the big Y2K takeover…or bust! I loved the camaraderie and teamwork all that preparation and effort engendered!