Legacy Support

SUPPORTING LEGACY APPLICATIONS DURING THE TRANSITION TO A NEW VENDOR

The Challenge

A Washington-based health system, home to 5 hospitals and several thousand team-members, faced the challenge of installing a new EHR at one of their area hospitals. In conjunction with third-party interfaces and many tertiary systems, the organization needed to maintain their legacy system throughout the lengthy installation process. Such a project is inherently extensive in nature and can be rife with issues if the organization underestimates the level of commitment needed to implement a new system while maintaining their current one. Our long-time client acknowledged these challenges, and anticipating a workload requiring eight full-time resources, reached out for assistance.

The Solution

HSi partnered with our client in the early stages of their EHR implementation project, setting a foundation for a smooth transition. In collaboration with leadership, goals were developed to ensure minimal disruption of service, including regular on-site meetings with stakeholders to provide personalization and elbow-to-elbow support. Additionally, with respect to the multi-year commitment the project required, HSi resources were relocated to the client location, providing cost savings throughout the engagement and feet on the ground for person-to-person support. Responsible for both Help Desk support and acting as on-call staff for the hospital, HSi developed an application support matrix incorporating the division of all applications. This included not only core programs, but also ancillary programs, being delineated into buckets of responsibility for each consultant. This structuring allowed all legacy system support to be handled by four consultant resources. In this way, HSi’s consultants were able to maintain optimal legacy support updating applications as needed and managing the effects those updates had on transitioning systems.

The Benefit

Together we were able to meet the goals and outcomes set with our client and do “more with less” without disruption of service. Combining the personalized support matrix, regular on-site stakeholder meetings, and dedicated HSi resources, HSi’s support allowed our client to shift eight full-time employees from legacy support to new vendor implementation and training. All this was successfully accomplished using only half the resources our client originally anticipated. In addition to allowing the organization’s employees to focus on their new EHR system, the client was able to end their maintenance contract with their legacy support vendors earlier than initially planned, resulting in a $500,000 savings. We focused with our client on optimizing change management and easing the transition to the new system with end-user satisfaction as a key outcome. By allowing time for client staff to focus on training and workflow updates, we were able to achieve this outcome along with the other goals set.

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