Breaking Down the Post Go-Live Live Huddle

Affinity Medical Group’s EHR pilot went live on GE Centricity EMR whis week. It has been a well run project throughout and I had the honor of joining our bright, hard-working team for their end-of-day huddle. They did a few things that I really liked. This is not an exhaustive list. I would love to hear from others on their ideas to run the Live Huddle.

Issues

The primary focus of the Live Huddle are the issues that have been surfaced during the day. The issues are typically categorized like this:

• Critical infrastructure or application problem that is having a negative impact on business operations (bad)
• Unanticipated issues that need a near-term resolution
• Workflow issues
• Suggestions for improvement

As always, the documentation of the issues is key: detailed descriptions, good examples and no abbreviations. One day I will blog about what constitutes a good issues list (tip 1: you can’t use Excel to manage issues). A great issues list is one of a handful of key project controls required for project success.

During the AMG huddle today I saw the team was using paper forms so they could jot down issues on the fly. Later they entered them into the project issues tool. Ultimately the live issues need to get into the same tracking tool as the rest of the project issues.

Statistics

During AMG’s huddle they shared some key stats about the day. I really loved this because it made the use of the system more tangible, building on the sense of accomplishment. Here are some stats from today’s huddle:

• refill requests processed: 27
• labs ordered: 64
• phone notes: 125
• visit notes: 129

Mood

The other creative thing that this group did was design a form that guaged everyone’s mood. Everyone was encouraged to complete the VERY SHORT form, incluidng IT, managers and especially users. I think this can serve as a good early warning sign if the project is heading south.

What are your tips for a goo Live Huddle?