Healthcare IT Reduces Costs and Improves Quality and Patient Safety - Digital Hospitals

Implementing EHRs and EMRs fuel changes in healthcare

 

Despite the economic downturn, healthcare is one of the fastest growing IT vertical markets. Healthcare IT reduces costs and improves the quality of care and patient safety.

Aging infrastructure, a lag in technology adoption, and regulatory pressure to implement electronic health records (EHRs) and electronic medical records (EMRs) are fueling changes in healthcare. Adoption of EMRs in the US is on the rise: 23% of hospitals with more than 500 beds reported fully operational EMRs in 2007 and 30% of physicians stated they used EMRs.

This presentation prepared by Hewlett-Packard (HP) for a Health and Life Sciences Symposium in March 2009 provides the information you need to stay informed on changes in healthcare. Read the digital hospital case studies and review the list of domestic digital hospitals by clicking “Download Resource” to request the URL to this resource.

Click "Download White Paper" to read more.

Service Desk/Help Desk Best Practices Assessment Questions

25 Questions for Measuring Service Desk/Help Desk Maturity

This 25 Question Assessment Excel developed by Giva Partner, CDC Global Services, provides a simple and quick method for gauging the maturity level of your Service Desk/Help Desk.

This Service Desk/Help Desk Assessment Excel tool has 5 sections:

  • Processes & Best Practices-How well defined and documented are the Service Desk/Help Desk processes?
  • Organizational Integration-Is the Service Desk/Help Desk a valuable contributor to organization success?
  • Technology Optimization-How mature are technology solutions?
  • Staff Development-What is the professional level and commitment of the Service Desk/Help Desk staff?
  • Information Management-How well does the Service Desk/Help Desk utilize metrics for customer satisfaction, call reduction, root cause and self-improvement?

To determine the maturity level of your Service Desk/Help Desk, compare your score with the information found on the Maturity Index tab. The Maturity Index is scaled from a high of "Actualized" which operates in a fully proactive mode with clearly documented processes and full integration with the rest of the organization, to a low of "Nonexistent."

Service Desk Assessment Level of Impact

Click "Download White Paper" to obtain a copy of this Service Desk/Help Desk Assessment Excel and instructions for using it.

Hosted ITIL & SOX Compliant IT Change Management Software Easy RFC Form Customization

Easy RFC Form Customization-Giva eChangeManager

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Giva eChangeManager administration makes the process of getting up and running very easy and fast. Most set-up tasks are accomplished by simply completing a three or four item dropdown menu. Total configuration time takes less than a day if you use the Giva worksheets to help you with your thought process.

One of the first set-up steps is to determine your customized RFC form. Giva eChangeManager has the capability to create a customized RFC form configured with the fields needed for your organization. The default Giva RFC form is configured with strict ITIL compliance and utilizes 29 fields. Some IT departments find that they do not need all of the fields required by ITIL. With Giva eChangeManager, an RFC form can be configured with only a minimum of 9 required fields. The remaining 20 optional fields can be used as appropriate.

Giva has a worksheet and documentation that will help you quickly decide what fields you would like to include on your custom RFC form. This worksheet also has some suggested field values.

The following is detail on required and optional fields:

  • Optional - Categorization fields.  With simple dropdown menus, the following fields can define the RFC: Priority, Scope, Risk Level, Impact Level, Service Group, Change Category, Cost Level and Benefit Level.
  • Required - Requester’s name.  This defaults to the person logged into the session. You also can pick from a list of names (Users).
  • Required - Description.  This is where the RFC creator documents all details of the change. The change description is what the Change Manager reads and makes decisions about approving or not approving the change. The goal is for the Change Manager to understand everything about the change so that no additional communications are necessary.
  • Optional - Customer Affected.  When the change is for a single customer, enter the name in this field. Begin typing the name or select from the drop down menu. The “quick find” data entry box will help you find the customer’s name quickly.
  • Optional - Other Customers Affected.  When there are multiple customers affected, enter their names in this field. As an alternative, you could indicate “All the HR Department,” or “Third floor building A.” All customers affected appear on the Forward Scheduled Changes Report that the helpdesk uses to know about changes. When a customer contacts the helpdesk, the agent can easily associate customers with changes by consulting this report.
  • Optional - Business Line Manager.  When this field is completed, eChangeManager automatically sends change notifications to the manager. The “quick find” data entry box will help you find the business line manager’s name quickly.
  • Required - Requested Date/Time of Change.  The Change Manager uses these fields to determine if there are possible scheduling conflicts.
  • Optional - Add Attachments.  For most routine changes, IT organizations develop a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP). For example, you might have an SOP for installing an external hard drive or for upgrading to Office 2000. The SOP includes the implementation plan, customer-training and helpdesk-training plan, testing plan and backout plan. For complex changes, project plans provide the detail documentation. Giva eChangeManager allows you to simply attach these documents to the RFC using the “Add Attachments” hyperlink saving time that it would take to type the same material into the Description field. For standardizing the change process, Giva recommends that you develop standard templates for implementation, testing and backout plans.

Hosted ITIL & SOX Compliant IT Change Management Software Successful Changes Report

Easy-to-use Successful Changes Report-Giva eChangeManager

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This report displays all changes that have been successful. An improvement in the change management process most often comes from analyzing changes that when well. The report allows you to query by Service Group(s), Priority(s), Scope(s), Change Category(s) and date range.

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Hosted ITIL & SOX Compliant IT Change Management Software Scheduled Changes by Scope Report

Easy-to-use Schedule Changes by Scope Report-Giva eChangeManager

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This report allows a quick view of all changes by scope. This is useful to know for planning resources. If many changes are scheduled, it is important to have the appropriate resources assigned. The report may be further refined to show all changes in increments of 1 Week, 1 Month, 3 Months and 6 Months.

 

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Hosted ITIL & SOX Compliant IT Change Management Software Scheduled Changes by Group Report

Easy-to-use Schedule Changes by Group Report-Giva eChangeManager

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This report allows a service group an easy way to see all changes assigned to them. They can use it to balance resources within the group. The report may be further refined to show all changes in increments of the next 24 hours, 1 Week and 1 Month.

 

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Hosted ITIL & SOX Compliant IT Change Management Software Induced Problems Report

Easy-to-use My Requested Changes Report-Giva eChangeManager

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This report provides a listing of all changes entered by the logged in User. This report allows you to query by Service Group(s), Priority(s), Scope(s), Change Category(s) and date range. The report is useful for requesters to view where their change requests are in the change process.

 

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Hosted ITIL & SOX Compliant IT Change Management Software Induced Problems Report

Easy-to-use Induced Problems Report-Giva eChangeManager

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This report lists all changes that had induced problems associated with them. These could come from the help desk by running a Root Cause Analysis report for incidents caused by changes or from the implementer or the Change Manager by entering relevant information into the change record. The purpose of this report is to determine root cause so that your organization can continually improve the change management process. This report allows you to query by Service Group(s), Priority Code(s), Scope(s), Change Category(s) and date range. You can also query on a single Change Request Number.

 

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Hosted ITIL & SOX Compliant IT Change Management Software Forward Schedule of Changes Report

Easy-to-use Forward Schedule of Changes Report-Giva eChangeManager

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This report lists all currently scheduled changes. You may query for Service Group(s) and a date range. The date range automatically defaults to the start date = “today – 1 day” and the end date = “today + 31 days.” This makes it easy to see what changes took place in the last twenty-four hours and those scheduled for the next month. This report lets the help desk plan support resources based on the volume and types of changes scheduled.

 

 

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Ten Tough Questions to Better Qualify Customer Service & IT Help Desk Software Vendors Part 3

Quickly Determine the True Character of Vendors

How can you more quickly qualify and evaluate customer service and IT help desk software vendors?

This white paper discusses ten groups of penetrating questions to ask Customer Service and IT Help Desk software vendors to determine their true character. A software vendor is like a spouse. Understand while you are "Dating" what life may be like after the "Honeymoon" is over. Ask these questions early in your qualification process to focus on the vendors that will be there for you long after they have your company's money. Use these questions to poke and prod at your list of vendors and then listen very carefully when they speak. What you learn will save you a great deal of time and money. Make sure to get their responses in writing!

Some topics covered include:

  • What happens if we have a disagreement? Will we have to litigate?
  • What's the price of modules that we may use in the future?
  • What's the price of new licenses we may purchase in the future?
  • Can we set up independent service desks/databases for other departments such as Human Resources so that it is private and segregated?
  • Are there license options other than Fixed/Named so large groups can use the system part-time?
  • Can you provide case studies documenting business results you have helped customers achieve?
  • How will you obtain my company's evolving feature requirements?
  • Will my company have an Account Manager (i.e. one neck to squeeze) or do we have to navigate through your organization on our own?
  • Will you provide a thirty-day supported production trial without obligation?
  • How often does your company provide new releases?

Click "Download White Paper" to read more about the ten tough questions to better qualify customer service and IT help desk vendors.

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