Healthcare Information Technology Research & Analysis : Coplan & Company : IT Procurement Management, Project Management, System Acquisition

I was recently performing Quality Assurance (QA) on a Healthcare Information Technology (HIT) project. The project manager failed to include change management in their project management plan. I asked her why she omitted this. She said her healthcare organization uses the nine Knowledge Areas from the Project Management Institute’s (PMI) Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK), which does not include change management.

I responded by indicating she included product management Technical Knowledge Areas from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), e.g., requirements preparation, software testing, and training management, so why not include change management there. We cannot do that, she said, because it requires stakeholder involvement. I explained that is precisely the point. Many HIT projects fail because they do not adequately address change management and required stakeholder involvement.

Change management transforms individuals and organizations from the current to a future state. This is what HIT implementation project are all about. While it goes beyond project boundaries, i.e., change management is permanent and project management only addresses temporary endeavors, all HIT projects embrace the long-term. For example, we work with the vendor implementation team during the project and transfer the deployed HIT to vendor support and maintenance that are responsible for long-term system continuation, upkeep and enhancement.

As project managers, we don’t just hand the system over to support and maintenance; we develop plans, procedures and training, which we execute after successful HIT deployment. We need to address change management similarly during HIT projects. For example, we need to:

• Set measurable objectives at the project beginning,
• Assign project objectives to executive management to ensure accountability,
• Conduct a gap analysis with end users to determine the current and future state,
• Identify key changes by individual clinician and prepare one to two "impact sheets" showing clinicians how the new system affects them and
• Assign “resistance busters” or individuals that work with their peers, who are having difficulty adjusting to the new system.

We shouldn’t stop at deployment. We need to continue, just like system maintenance, and employ ongoing process improvement throughout the life of the implemented HIT.