Every month or so, the Voalté staff gets together to review our most recent deployments and current implementation projects with the goal of taking away lessons learned. What worked? What didn’t work? What was overlooked? What was unnecessary? Did we overcomplicate any aspects? What areas did we underestimate? Mistakes are ok, provided that you learn from them. This is a great exercise that ensures just that.

During our last meeting, we decided to change things a bit. Coming off a very successful deployment, we instead asked ourselves “What did we do right?” Why did this deployment go so well? How can we replicate this go-live over and over again? We looked at it from every angle:

ü  Total buy-in from all stakeholders at all levels? Check.

ü  A clear project plan? Check.

ü  Meticulous attention to details? Check.

ü  Solid documentation of Current State / Future State workflow? Check.

Yet time and again, the discussion returned to the project manager assigned by the hospital. There was no denying that she played a big role in the success of the project. Sally Reeves was absolutely exceptional.

But what was it about her and how do we replicate that success? I recently came across an article by MIT Sloan Management Review titled “How to Prevent Your Customers From Failing” that answers that question much better than I could possibly attempt to. While it is a few years old, it is still just as relevant today and should be considered mandatory reading for all healthcare implementation projects. I was so inspired, in fact, I copied the title of the article for this blog post.

The premise is simple: Customers that are actively involved in the design and delivery of the goods and services that they purchase are considered “co-producers.” They impact the quality of their own experiences and influence the satisfaction of other customers. As a result, hospitals play a key role in the success of the systems and services they purchase.

“Wait. We’re paying you all of this money to install your solution and you’re telling me that if it fails it’s my fault?”

Well the short answer is maybe. Implementation projects need to be considered a partnership between the hospital and vendor (or maybe, in the spirit of Valentines Day, a romance). Stakeholders on both sides need to be fully committed and in sync with the same vision. Consider these all too common scenarios for a minute:

·      Project Manager goes to the Network Admin to get an IP Address created for new servers being installed. The Admin responds with “I just can’t right now. The XYZ project is my priority and I don’t have any bandwidth.”

·      Security changes need to be made to the firewall, which are sent to the Network Security guy. After 3 conference calls to understand why we’d dare question his security settings, he agrees to make the required changes. Three weeks later, he confirms he made all of the changes. Testing begins and you discover that not all of the changes were in fact made.

·      A decision is made at the top to pilot a new product in a specific unit. A week before go-live, the Manager and staff on that unit are brought into the project discussion for the first time.

·      Databases, workflows, and templates are created for clinical staff without any input from clinical.

Of course, the article does state several times that a clear difference exists in perceptions of the cause of failure. Customers often believe that the vendor could have done more to prevent them from failing. I’ve previously written that even when it’s not your fault, it’s still your problem and this is no different here. It’s why we put such an emphasis on identifying potential customer failures and understanding their root causes when they do happen—to put the project and customer in the best position for success.