Five months to go. Plan it right, resource it right, manage it well and those workforce issues should never arise.
If this week has proven anything it is that it is possible for a huge digital health rollout to be technically competent, clinically adequate, politically triumphant, and culturally disastrous, all at the same time.
You will have noticed that HSD has been banging on for weeks now about the Epic single digital patient record rollout in the Hunter New England Local Health District (here, here, and here, just in the past week).
The go-live was this past Wednesday – two months behind schedule – and, so far at least, things seem to have gone relatively smoothly, at least from a patient point of view, which you could argue is probably the most important thing.
We’ve been privileged to have the trust of some frontline workers on the ground within both the Single Digital Patient Record Implementation Authority and the Hunter New England LHD, who have given us valuable insights into the mechanics of the rollout.
From the point of view of the SDPRIA’s workforce, planning and resourcing have been chaotic, management has been toxic, and people have been lost to burnout and stress-related illness.
From the point of view of the HNELHD’s workforce, training has been inadequate, badly organised, and communication has also been problematic, at best.
From HSD’s perspective, the organisations involved – SDPRIA, NSW Health, eHealth NSW, the Health Services Union, and, to a lesser extent, HNELHD – have been unwilling to engage with us about any of the criticisms and concerns put forward by their employees.
Since Wednesday, of course, some have been very chirpy.
“We are proud to share that the Single Digital Patient Record (SDPR) is now officially live at Hunter New England Local Health District and NSW Health Pathology sites across Hunter New England, marking another milestone for NSW Health,” said eHealth NSW.
“As one of the key delivery partners supporting the SDPR, eHealth NSW has been proud to play our part in making this moment possible.”
Richard Taggart, eHealth NSW’s CEO said:
“Every day I’m proud of the people at NSW Health … but today, a little more than usual.
“The go-live of the SDPR at Hunter New England is a genuine milestone. It’s the product of thousands of people working across the health system over many years.
“This is just the beginning, but beginnings matter.
“To everyone who made today possible thank you. I am truly inspired by your collective efforts, problem solving skills and support for one another.
“And to our frontline clinical colleagues using the system for real today, for the first time, thanks for jumping in and making this happen – you’re making history.”
It is a big achievement, no doubt at all. And it is an enormously important first step to getting the whole state on the same platform.
But it has, and continues to, come at a cost to those who have been working to get it up and running.
People working in healthcare do this on a regular basis – just ask a female GP or a junior medical officer in a public hospital. They bend over backwards, put up with a lot of pressure and a lot of awful working conditions to get the job done because unlike most other professions, lives depend on it.
HSD has copped a lot of criticism for our coverage of this rollout. Did we overstate the cost of the rollout? Did we minimise the size of the achievement in getting the rollout done on Wednesday?
I’ll cop to those things (to a degree) but what has been very interesting is that we haven’t received a word of criticism about the workforce concerns. Not one word.
That says a lot, not only about the veracity of what our sources are telling us, but also the unwillingness of managements across all the agencies to talk about it.
It is not okay to flog a workforce into illness and resignation just because a project is important.
Related
Now attention turns to the next tranche of rollouts, coming in – at this stage at least – November, at Northern NSW LHD, Mid North Coast LHD, Northern Sydney LHD, Central Coast LHD and LIMS North.
Technically, those rollouts are going to be a different animal from the HNELHD project. Hunter was using Orion as its legacy EMR. Northern NSW, Mid North Coast, Northern Sydney and Central Coast are all users of Cerner/Oracle.
That’s a different kettle of fish and will present, no doubt, a whole range of new challenges.
Five months to go. Plan it right, resource it right, manage it well and those workforce issues should never arise.
It’s that simple.