Case Study: Epic Go-Live
University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (UCLH) provides acute and specialist services in six hospitals, admitting more than 156,000 patients each year. Recently, the Trust has taken impressive steps and made significant investments in digital transformation to make patient care safer and more effective. UCLH chose the EPIC electronic health record (EHR) in 2017. The EPIC implementation went live with the system in 2019.
Requirements
This requirement was to provide support in floorwalking and training pre, during and, post Go-Live in March 2019 for the go-live across all hospitals at UCLH. The requirement timescales for the EPIC implementation were tight as the Trust reached out for support less than a week before the start of localisation.
Deployment Timescales
IT Works Health managed an average turnaround time of 72 hours from requirement, through to interview and delivery. With accessibility to the wider market of EPR floorwalking and training staff, IT Works Health was able to give UCLH full access to the available market.
Positions Provided
- Maternity (labour & Delivery) Floorwalker
- IP/HASU Floorwalker
- IP/Maternity/Theatres Floorwalker
- Dental Floorwalker
- Inpatients Floorwalker
- ED: Nurse/Dr/Admin Floorwalker
- NNU/IP Floorwalker
- IP (Neurology) Floorwalker
- Outpatients Floorwalker
- Cancer Floorwalker
- ASAP / IP Floorwalker
- IP/Oncology Floorwalker
- Radiology/ IP Floorwalker
- Maternity Floorwalker
- WMS (Urology) Floorwalker
Following an open procurement and last-minute struggle for resource, IT Works Health was engaged to provide a search, select, recruit and deployment service for University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust’s EPIC Go-Live.
Sourcing Candidates for an Epic Implementation
IT Works Health worked all requirements through a 4-stage recruitment process.
1. Search
Following the full qualification of the positions with the Trust, we then searched and matched prequalified consultants in our network and accessed our real-time CRM system. We qualified each candidate against the Trust’s requirement in relation to experience, qualifications, and certifications if required. Each candidate was put through referencing and qualification checks prior to submission.
2. Select
IT Works Health provided the Trust with prequalified options for selection. They always provided candidates with a broad range of experience and skillsets ensuring the Trust had as much of the market to pick from as needed.
3. Recruit
A full interview preparation and post analysis of each candidate was provided. All charge rates and contractual agreements agreed at pre-interview, to make the offer and acceptance process smooth and easy.
4. Deployment
Following acceptance of offers and onboarding protocol completion, the hired candidate was provided with detail of start date and any further details needed for localisation.
IT Works Health provided an average 72-hour turnaround across the board from gathering of the requirement to interview. With the EPIC talent pool in the UK being smaller than most EPR Systems, the recruitment success was through the relationship built from previous engagements with other Trusts. The rapid speed and efficiency of the whole process delivered quality Contractor qualification and engagement.
Challenges & Solutions
Challenge: Availability of Qualified Candidates
The first challenge and obstacle IT Works Health and the Trust identified was the need to overcome the lack of qualified EPIC Trainers present in the UK.
Solution
We resolved this, in agreement with the Trust, by implementing a classroom/ E learning stage 2 weeks before Go-Live. This cut down timescales to 5 working days gave the required mechanism to ensure Consultants were fully trained.
Challenge: Training Team Management
A tough obstacle which was dealt with by both the Trust and IT Works Health was the handling and control of the Training Team. Normally, you’ll see a lack of communication and organisation within a floorwalking team potentially leading to staff not arriving for shifts on time, or not turning up at all.
Solution
IT Works Health put in place a 24-hour support line with 2 designated Account Managers on call if any issue was to arise. At project end, following further analysis, 97% of required shifts were successfully completed with no reports of complaints of staff turning up late or not delivering.
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