Cooperation Challenges in the Vila Health Team
My experience is related to the successful implementation of an electronic health record (EHR) system in hospital settings. One of the most important aspects of nursing is monitoring the patients’ condition through the control of various indicators. Because nurses, by their duties, are most closely in contact with patients, they are the ones who monitor the largest amount of information to document and share with doctors. The more promptly the information from a nurse goes to a doctor, the higher the level of continuity, and, consequently, the quality of medical care delivery. In our hospital, nurses recorded all the information collected in various paper forms, including shift changelogs, condition control sheets, observation sheets, nursing assessment sheets, et cetera.
During several group meetings, many nurses stated that all this documentation was accompanied by certain inconveniences. Some pointed to a large number of controlled parameters that could not be entered on one sheet; it was necessary to enter information into different sheets, and checklists, resulting in a large volume of documents filled out by a nurse. Others were concerned that to obtain information about a patient, one needs to revise a heap of documentation at the nursing post, losing time and delaying treatment appointments. Therefore, it was collectively decided to try integrating the EHR system and steadily replacing the paper notes. After the 2-month training, our hospital managed to comfortably change the recording system within half a year, which was comfortable for both staff and patients.
The review of the management and staff responses regarding Healthix shows that they speak about it with regret and have growing dissatisfaction with their positions. It is possible to mention several challenges that implementing the new technology is a problem. In particular, there was a lack of communication and sharing, disregarding IT staff and management concerns, poor staff training, and subsequent patient care delays (Joukes et al., 2019). Even though the facility changed its recording system, all of the team members are dissatisfied with how it works and how their work changed. To address these challenges, a Plan-Do-Check-Act tool can be applied for its attention to detail and clear structure.
First, it is critical to plan the activities and create requirements, so that it would be possible to evaluate the results by clear criteria on how successfully the work was done. In the given case, the team values slow processes, where everyone is given some time to consider and accept changes. All of the people who provided their views emphasized that they understand the need for innovative changes. Therefore, the transformational leadership style should be adopted by the local or assigned leader. It implies creating a vision and translating it to employees to inspire them and increase their self-efficacy (Colicchio et al., 2019). In addition, intellectual stimulation should be provided through elaborate and detailed training. All the questions and concerns should be addressed so that the staff would feel comfortable and engaged in the change process.
Second, it is necessary to test the planned leadership initiative and intended changes in a relatively narrow area of work, where there is no risk of huge losses in case of failure. Regarding the given care facility that is small, some parts of documentation can be transformed into an electronic format; for example, patient checklists (Colicchio et al., 2019). After that, the challenges and successes should be analyzed to make changes either in the specifications or in the work. The technology implementation can be extended after the necessary adjustments. The cycle should then be repeated regularly to provide the organization with the flexibility to continually adapt to the changing environment.
Intra-team communication and appropriate skill mix are two interdisciplinary collaboration best practices that should be developed by the Vila Health team. The ability to interact requires a willingness to work with people in the context of human interaction, combining the efforts of all members (Wilkinson et al., 2020). The willingness to work in a team should also involve coordination skills and emotional intellect. With the ability to maintain a positive attitude, overcome negative emotions, and inspire others, empathy allows the team members to be more sensitive and responsive to each other.
As for the technical convenience and cooperation, one may suggest that all information entered by a nurse is to be saved in the system as a text that is converted into an easy-to-read text, which is placed in the information system of the dispensary, along with the time of entering the information and the name of the nurse who entered the data (Joukes et al., 2019). All employees who have access to the information system and are interested in obtaining data on the patient’s condition can log into the system from their desktop at any time and obtain the necessary information.
To conclude, my experience was useful for better understanding cooperation challenges that were faced by the Vila Health team. It became clear that good communication implies the ability to discuss problems, be heard by management and leaders, and receive feedback. A lack of proper staff training, disregarding their concerns and failing to plan changes resulted in poor technology integration and staff dissatisfaction. Transformational leadership and a focus on team communication and sharing seem to improve the situation, leading to the successful Healthix implementation.
References
Colicchio, T. K., Borbolla, D., Colicchio, V. D., Scammon, D. L., Del Fiol, G., Facelli, J. C., Narus, S. P. (2019). Looking behind the curtain: Identifying factors contributing to changes on care outcomes during a large commercial EHR implementation. eGEMs, 7(1), 1-12.
Joukes, E., de Keizer, N. F., de Bruijne, M. C., Abu-Hanna, A., & Cornet, R. (2019). Impact of electronic versus paper-based recording before EHR implementation on health care professionals’ perceptions of EHR use, data quality, and data reuse. Applied Clinical Informatics, 10(2), 199-209.
Wilkinson, S., Borycki, E., & Kushniruk, A. (2020). Best practices for EHR implementation: A BC First Nations community’s experience. In Healthcare Management Forum (33, (1), pp. 39-46). Sage.