KLAS Report Finds Picking the Right Implementation Partner Takes Time & Planning

In a recent interview with Anthony Guerra of healthsystemCIO, Kaleb Harris, Research Director at KLAS, discusses the importance of selecting the right partner for go-live support. Harris emphasizes the critical role that consulting services play in ensuring successful EHR activations, particularly in high-stakes environments involving major vendors such as Epic, Oracle/Cerner, and Meditech. The complexity and scale of these projects requires careful consideration of the firm’s experience with specific software and the size of the healthcare organization. Harris also stresses the importance of proactive communication, thorough planning, and strong leadership engagement to navigate potential challenges and ensure smooth go-live events.

Watch or listen below; scroll down to read 

LISTEN HERE USING THE PLAYER BELOW OR SUBSCRIBE THROUGH YOUR FAVORITE PODCASTING SERVICE. 

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 23:04 — 15.8MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | Pandora | iHeartRadio | Podchaser | Podcast Index | Email | TuneIn | RSS

Bold Statements

It’s also prudent for the organization to give runway. The actual event is generally between two to four weeks, but its important to engage firms months in advance to talk through the onboarding process and a systematic plan to ensure they put themselves in the best position to be successful.

There’s a finite number of resources in the market. So understanding how many organizations are going live at this time period, how many refuel engagements or things that are happening as well is important.

Anthony: Welcome to healthsystemCIOs interview with Kaleb Harris, Research Director at KLAS. I’m Anthony Guerra, Founder and Editor-in-Chief. Kaleb, thanks for joining me.

Kaleb: Glad to be here, Anthony. Looking forward to the conversation.

Anthony: You put your heart and soul into your reports so it’s probably fun to talk about them, right?

Kaleb: Yes, definitely. It is a process to say the least. So hopefully it’s impactful for the market.

Anthony: This report is “Go-Live Support 2024, Finding the Right Partner in a High-Performing Market.” Very interesting topic. Can you give me the quick overview of KLAS and your role.

Kaleb: Sure. KLAS is a mission-driven organization with an objective to improve healthcare. We talk directly to the end users, getting anonymous feedback and sharing unfiltered feedback with the market. My role is to work with firms in their respective segments where we’re measuring primarily EHR and ERP implementation. The firms leading those  implementations and/or staffing go-live activations are the areas that I am responsible for.

Anthony: Very good. Why did you decide to tackle this particular topic?

Kaleb: We decided to tackle this one because we’re still seeing a fair amount of activations and go lives happening in the market. Being able to share this information with the industry and to support significant decisions. It can be a very costly decision when deciding who health systems should engage.  Who can help with this significant investment with a particular software and getting those lights turned on, that initial training and go live event can be very stressful. And to share with the market which firms are going to perform at a high level, help health systems make and continue to inform decision around the partnership with this particular engagement.

Anthony: We’re talking about the big EHR vendors, Epic and Oracle/Cerner and Meditech, and that’s pretty much where we are these days. What’s the sentiment or messaging from the vendors on a go live? Is it sort of, yeah, you absolutely need to engage someone to help you, we’re going to do our part, but you need help. Or is it, we got this – you and us together, we got this, we don’t need anybody else.

Kaleb: I think that’s predicated on the size of the health system. From what we have seen, this is something where bringing someone in is beneficial, just because of the sheer volume of people required. And again, that’s going to depend on the size of the organization. I think anything new, and especially if you’ve been doing something for 10 years the same way, having someone directly at the elbow to answer those questions can be very meaningful. Just the sheer volume of people that are required often makes this a necessity.

Anthony: There’s different types of consulting for these implementations. What you’ve mentioned a few times is the user training.  There’s also a technical side for consulting on the implementation, where you’re making sure everything works and the infrastructure. Are those are two different things?

Kaleb: Oftentimes we see that those are two separate firms, but there are sometimes where one leads from the start of the engagement until go live. Generally, they’re going to potentially still be there to help make sure that everything goes well, and then having a group specifically focused on the activation of the go live.

Anthony: One of the things you mentioned in the report is that clients are starting to expect more customized execution rather than a traditional standard consulting approach. Tell me what you mean by a more customized execution.

Kaleb: What we mean by that really is making sure that the firms brought in understand the organization, what are the key challenges, what are the things that are important to them, and making sure they have the appropriate resources to address those questions versus just bringing in, for lack of a better phrase, a warm body.

It’s also prudent for the organization to give runway. The actual event is generally between two to four weeks, but its important to engage firms months in advance to talk through the onboarding process and a systematic plan to ensure they put themselves in the best position to be successful. I think that’s a two-way street. Not just relying on the firm, but also on the organization, making sure that they’re working cohesively together.

Anthony: It sounds like, you want to be very careful with the selection of the company that you’re going to bring in. And that these companies, and you tell me if I’m wrong, these companies are very specific in where their strengths lie with a particular vendor, right? Some of them are going to specialize in all three, in Meditech, Epic and Cerner, some of them may prefer one. And then they can also specify based on size, right? Not every firm is going to be able to help a 10-hospital system. They may specialize in helping two-hospital systems, and you can go by beds, but generally size can be an issue. So you might have an organization that focuses on particular vendors and a particular size of health system that they can help.  Take it slow and be deliberate.

Kaleb: And be deliberate and specific because it can be challenging if you’re just trying to get people in a short period of time. Selecting a firm that has the validations and experience to drive a successful implementation is important. Think this is more market driven. The majority are Epic engagements.

Anthony: If you are installing Epic, which a lot of people are, you have to understand that there’s significant competition for high-level Epic resources, which means don’t make a call and expect the army to come next week, because they’re being utilized. It’s almost like a really good contractor who’s remodeling kitchens. Someone who’s really good is going to say, “well, I’m booked out six months, so I can put you on the schedule, but I can’t come next week.” It’s the same thing with these resources, right?

Kaleb: Correct, correct. That’s an excellent example. And the other part, and this is where it goes into also connecting with the software vendors, is understanding of who else is going live. There’s a finite number of resources in the market. So understanding how many organizations are going live at this time period, how many refuel engagements or things that are happening as well is important. That way you can really have an understanding of what is the pool of resources looks like.

Anthony: Right, because you could almost picture a discussion that says, “listen, I could send you my B team next week, but if you want the A team, it’s going to be three months.”

Kaleb: Sure, yeah. And that’s where I think having those conversations is beneficial. Making sure that we’re not asking, “hey, I need 200 plus resources tomorrow.” While we’ve seen that happen, it leads to greater variability in the experience. That’s why having that level of engagement months in advance will put you in a better spot to reduce the load. These go live events are stressful. They’re high, high intensity. How can we reduce that as much as we possibly can to make it a more streamlined and smooth experience for the end user.

Anthony: Yeah, you’re cracking me up with your phrase greater because you didn’t want to say it in a bad way. You said greater variability in the experience. So when you have a really bad install, you can say, “listen, we had some greater variability in our experience.”

Kaleb: Yeah, we’re just trying to help the people, Anthony.

Anthony: As you mentioned in the report, sometimes you see resources swapped out if the customer is unhappy. It could be because they don’t have the experience that was hoped for, they don’t have the knowledge. It could be just a personality conflict, I suppose, like we’re just not jiving. It could be many things. So this is a very interesting but common dynamic in consulting engagements. Can you talk a little bit about this? And I think in your report you indicate that some, and we don’t have to get into the companies, but some are more receptive to swapping out consultants. Tell me a little bit about that dynamic.

Kaleb: When we’re talking about bringing in 100 plus people, oftentimes there is going to be a resource that doesn’t pan out. It’s very rare that you’re going to get a 100 percent hit rate. The other part of from a planning perspective is having a solidified approach of how to navigate and adjust that. And making sure also who is on the bench. If I have to replace somebody, what’s the timeline to switch that person out.

I would say the majority of firms, if not all, that we measured in this report do that very well. They make sure that when this happens, there is a process in place. I think that the real pain point is if is leadership role that is changing. There’s more implications versus switching out a general resource compared to someone in leadership. So those contingency plans are critical to making sure that you’re successful.

Anthony: Absolutely. And that touches on the scarcity of resources in the market. So if the leader of the project, you guys aren’t jiving, you’re not able to get along and you want to switch them out, there may not be anybody on the bench at that level at this time. So that could be part of a conversation.

Kaleb: Sure. That’d be part of the conversation. And that’s where I also say from just the executive leadership teams. We hear that being able to step in and have conversations and be aware of the pain points, where are things going well, and leading those discussions to alleviate any potential challenge in those scenarios.

Anthony: Dealing with unexpected issues in a positive way, proactive communication as opposed to reactive, executive engagement. When things are bad is when there’s confusion and things are chaotic and things are unanticipated. What do you want to talk about with those points?

Kaleb: For unanticipated events, being proactive versus reactionary is very important.  With these events, there’s a lot of moving parts. And this goes back to a systematic approach because no one likes surprises. When a firm is able to get ahead of that and communicate in a timely fashion that alleviates some of the stress.  They have a plan on how they are going to tackle this. Also, looking at potential potholes down the road that you can navigate and say this is what we’re seeing, this is how we’re going to rectify this and adjust for this expected event are things that are critical. Because as you know, there could be a very small thing, but if not communicated, the level of stress in can turn into a much bigger challenge and issue than if it was properly communicated first.

That comes down to project leadership, what’s happening there, also reiterating the point of proper planning in advance and having that level of contingency planning of thinking what can go wrong, how will we address that, and making sure that those things are properly addressed as much as possible. There’s always some level of unexpected problems, but having a roadmap best positions them to best navigate those unexpected challenges.

Anthony: Yeah, I’m sort of laughing to myself here because if there are unexpected issues and confusion and chaos, I could have done that myself.

Kaleb: Sure.

Anthony: I didn’t need to, you’re here to avoid that. So if you’re not helping me, what are you doing?

Kaleb: Exactly. And that’s why paying attention to variables that can be controlled, doing everything to make sure that’s ready to go. I actually went to a go live and it actually ended earlier than what was initially scheduled because of how seamless the project was and understanding what the objectives are. This is what we’re doing. They’re able to downsize, reduce the number of resources because of how smoothly the project went. Not every project is the same and not every project is going to go that smooth, but that’s where making sure to understand what the variables are, what the challenges are, and how to navigate them are key aspects. And that’s where I think it’s not just the firm but also the provider organization working in unison to ensure that they are on the same page and there’s a level of partnership there to best address these engagements.

Anthony: It sounds to me like a few of the takeaways are take your time, have a nice timeline on this so you don’t have to rush, get references and make sure the entity has done the specific type of project that you want for the organization, for the size that you are, and then do your part. Because the health system is always going to have a lot of work to do. Now I’m sure the companies that are thought of highly in this area take as much as possible off the plate of the health system. They probably need the health system to do certain things. So do your part.

Kaleb: One big thing is first and foremost, is what software system am I implementing? Do the firms in which I’m engaging have experience in there? Also experience with size and scope of my organization is critical. Universal things that you need to make sure you’re aware of. The other adjacent things to be thinking of is what else is happening in the market? What are the size and scopes of the projects that I need to be aware of as I will be competing for similar resources, is a big part that I would say being aware of. And then also making sure that you have the appropriate engagement from your leadership team. Is everyone bought in? Is everyone aware of what we’re doing and making sure we’re taking the appropriate time to plan for this event versus having it rushed and trying to get folks a week before it goes? Because there’s a lot of logistical challenges there as well. It sounds very basic and straightforward but oftentimes they get lost in the shuffle. But making sure that contingency planning and upfront road mapping is done well in advance.

Anthony: Yeah. And just one more thing, do you need to make sure you sort of interview and click with whoever’s going to lead that on the firm side. So I want to meet the person. I want to make sure we understand each other and feel good about that. Now, people can always leave jobs, right? That individual could leave after a month in the middle. You can’t prevent that, but that relationship has got to work well. Your thoughts.

Kaleb: Yeah, agreed. You want to check. Making sure that you vibe with the person, have an understanding of that communication piece is critical in understanding and driving a successful go live.

Anthony: Awesome, Kaleb. That was wonderful. I want to thank you so much for your time today.

Kaleb: I appreciate it. Thank you, Anthony. Have a great rest of your day.