Expanding and Upgrading an EMR System

In Brief

The Alaska Psychiatric Institute (API) sought to enhance their existing Electronic Medical Records (EMR) system to move towards a fully paperless medical records system. A Resource Data employee, acting as both Program Manager and project manager, played a pivotal role in API’s multi-year initiative. This involved strategic planning, implementation of new functionalities, and critical project management to realize API’s vision.

Challenge

To comply with federal requirements, API initially implemented a commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) Electronic Medical Record (EMR) system. Although the EMR modules functioned as needed, API needed to expand and enhance the system to achieve a paperless environment. They sought expert IT project management support from Resource Data to create and execute a strategic plan focused on EMR and tele-behavioral health initiatives in order to reach their goal.

“Resource Data has been a valued partner in our efforts to continually improve the quality of care our patients receive.”
—Ron Adler, CEO, Alaska Psychiatric Institute

Solution

Our Project Manager meticulously documented API’s EMR implementation and crafted a comprehensive multi-year IT strategic plan. This plan identified critical upcoming IT projects related to EMR and tele-behavioral health, including:

Evaluating project criticality, benefits, and risks
Developing cost estimates
Defining high-level schedules based on API’s priorities and project dependencies

Resource Data oversaw the implementation of multiple projects including:

Organized, prioritized, and tracked EMR-related issues
Managed major EMR upgrades, including electronic billing, clinical records, and medicine administration
Defined requirements for voice recognition software in order to support automatic transcriptions by healthcare providers
Developed downtime reporting for medication administration when the EMR is unavailable
Integrated systems for sharing medical records with outpatient providers
Created an IT disaster recovery plan to ensure availability of medical records during emergencies

Approach

Our Project Manager became an essential part of API’s long-term EMR goals, functioning similarly to a CIO. He collaborated closely with stakeholders within API, State agencies, the behavioral health community, software vendors, clinical and billing consultant teams, and contract developers. This coordination ensured the successful execution of API’s objectives and their advancement towards a fully paperless medical records system.