Setup – Healthsecure EMR

IMPLEMENTATION: HOW DOES IT ALL HAPPEN?

Once you have decided to implement an electronic system for your jail, where do you start? It is more than just buying and installing software. Regardless of the size of your institution, implementing an EMR requires careful planning, training and coordination among different departments.

This will ensure that everyone goes into the process with the right mindset, that staff are excited about the change and that the transition is a smooth and positive experience.

At HealthSecure, we consider ourselves to be consultants first, and software vendors second. Our goal is to learn about your institution, your healthcare process, and to craft an implementation plan that is best suited to your needs. We will be with you every step of the way, and we consider “system launch” to be the true beginning, and not the end, of our journey with you.

The following sections outline our approach to “consultative EMR software implementation”. Note that these steps are only to give you an idea; each institution’s needs vary and your project plan will be completely custom.

COMMAND STAFF CONSULTATION

Implementation starts with Command staff, medical administrators and other key leadership to learn about the jail’s strategic plans and long-term goals with respect to inmate medical care, and to provide Command with a high-level overview of the transition process. They will be kept updated with regular reports throughout implementation.

MEDICINE CONSULTATION

Our Chief Medical Officer will meet with your administrators to learn your medical environment. Our experience with developing jail software since 2003 has shown that every jail has unique processes and unique challenges. It is critical that we understand your environment so that we can train you in the most efficient use of our system, as well as configure it to serve you best.

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY CONSULTATION

HealthSecure can be deployed in a variety of ways, including on your premises or securely off-premise on our servers. We will meet with your IT staff to discuss what best fits your needs. We will also discuss various details including hardware requirements, signature pads, barcode scanners, interfaces, setting up of “training” and “production” environments, and more.

Just as our Chief Medical Officer is an experienced doctor and can effectively communicate with medical administrators, our CEO & VP of software engineering are programmers by training; we pride ourselves on always having a cordial relationship with IT, and that our senior management can “walk the walk” as well as “talk the talk” in technology discussions.

PROJECT PLAN DEVELOPMENT

We will provide a detailed project plan showing every step including stakeholders involved, timelines and responsibilities. This is shared in an online format so that it is instantly accessible to all leadership personnel.

TRAINING

Prior to launch, your staff will receive multiple rounds of training, and at multiple levels as necessary. For example, separate training sessions can be provided for nurses, physician-providers, administrator, etc., because the screens used by those roles are different.

INTERFACE DEVELOPMENT

We have extensive experience with developing interfaces of many kinds. We will work with your IT department to develop, test and deploy interfaces to your Jail Management System as well as other software such as Trust Accounting/Commissary, laboratory and pharmacy vendors.

CONTINGENCY PLANNING & PAPER FALLBACK PROCESS

We will work through a variety of “what-if” scenarios that may be unique to your jail’s situation and develop a strong contingency plan for launch and beyond. It is important that you also have a good fallback process, not just for launch, but for any kind of emergent situation that may arise in the future, e.g., a computer network failure that lasts more than a few hours.

GAP ANALYSIS, CUSTOMIZATION AND CONFIGURATION

We recognize that no single software system can meet every jail’s needs. Working with you, we will identify where our system needs extra features in order to make it perfect for you. HealthSecure is designed to be very flexible and has a large number of configuration options, so many issues are simply a matter of correct configuration.

We will make sure you have all the forms, reports and data fields needed to handle your current medical workflow seamlessly in the new system.

DRY RUN

Key personnel will execute one or more simple dry-runs of launch on a training system.

LAUNCH

Launch can be either staged or “full” depending on your preferences. For example, you may want to simply start with the electronic medication delivery (eMAR) and then implement a full EMR at a later stage. Or you may choose to do a full implementation at once.

We will work closely with you during this process and we consider it important for our personnel to be on-site during launch to answer questions and help with troubleshooting on the spot.

We will develop a good plan and execute with you, so that your staff is prepared, reassured and ready for the new system. With those preparations, you can expect a smooth transition with a minimum of problems!

ONGOING SUPPORT & PERIODIC CONSULTATIONS

Launch is just the beginning of our relationship with you! We will be there with you after launch as your staff begins to fully utilize your system. Soon after deployment, we will begin a series of periodic high-level consultations with your key leadership to review your progress, address challenges that you are facing, and identify successes. We learn from these consultations as well, as they help us with continuing innovations to our software.

SOFTWARE UPDATES

Our clients are always eligible for latest software versions at no extra charge. We will work with your medical administrators and IT departments to schedule minor and major updates.