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Is it them or is it us? Identifying responsible parties a first step in solving computer trouble
You must understand the problem and know the vendor’s role and your own.
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When it comes to computer problems, it is sometimes difficult to figure out what went wrong and more difficult to figure out who did it. After all, ophthalmologists and practice staff did not necessarily go to school to study computer programming, engineering or business process redesign. Yet, many times physicians and staff are faced with these subjects and other very complex problems related to computer systems.
Many computer problems demand an immediate resolution; otherwise, practice owners face the possibility of lost time, lost income and, perhaps most importantly, lost sanity. Some physicians and administrators may ask: “Isn’t this what our vendors are supposed to do? Shouldn’t they fix our computers and make them run correctly?” However, the days of plug-and-play computer systems are over. These days, in any computer system implementation, all parties including the medical office have responsibilities. This is why you must ask yourself, “Is it them or is it us?” before you can move toward a solution. In order to determine who is responsible for your computer problem, you must understand the problem, know the vendor’s role and know your own role.
Understanding your computer problem can be difficult because there are many components to take into consideration. First, you have to know who is involved. Many times in ophthalmology there are numerous vendors responsible for a computer system: electronic medical records, practice management, imaging, ASC, optical, clearinghouse, hardware, networking — the list of potential vendors that have a hand in your computer system infrastructure goes on.
Jonathan Lohr
Next, you need to look at the magnitude of the problem. Is your issue one that is impacting practice income, or is it something that can take a back seat until other, more urgent practice concerns are resolved? Essentially, it is important to understand what the problem is costing the practice in order to set the priority and urgency of problem resolution.
Third, are others facing this same issue, or are you the only one? If there are others experiencing the same problem, and there usually are, perhaps they can shed some light on who is responsible for the issue or issues, saving you valuable time. Other questions of importance are: How long do you think it will take to resolve the problem? Do you know what your vendor agreement says from start to finish or are you familiar with the agreement? Have you read the agreement yourself? If at any time you find yourself confused by the problem, consult an expert to help you better understand it.
Once you have an understanding of the problem, you can start to look at your vendor and what they should be doing for you. Obviously, the agreement is the first place to start. After looking at your agreement, go through any documentation you have that includes vendor claims of any sort. An example would be an email from a vendor representative discussing the vendor’s attitude toward customer service and unrelenting support when you need it. Despite salespeople’s reputation of saying “anything to get the deal,” most salespeople in this industry tend to be people of integrity who want to do their best to back up claims they made in the sales process or thereafter.
Also look at your vendor’s reputation in the market. Are they known for their training, project management and customer service? If not, you may be closer to knowing the source of your issues. Next, ask the vendor you think may be responsible for the problem to give you their assessment of the issue. They may claim responsibility and want to help you without any objection. Lastly, ask your other vendors for their assessment of your issue. You may be surprised how often your vendors have worked with each other and how much they know about one another.
To recap, you have assessed the problem as well as your vendor and your vendor’s obligation to you. Now for the most difficult part of the process, you must look at your own practice and your own responsibilities with an objective lens. It is important to be realistic in assessing your effort to make your system work. Consider the following:
- Have you invested at least 5% of the total system cost each year for your practice to get better on the system? Whether it is an investment in training or user group meetings, your practice should look at your computer system as something that needs constant attention and care.
- Do you have experts come in every year to look at your system (eg, hardware, software and workflow) to make sure it is running properly?
- Next, how about your people? Have they done a project like this before? If not, did they take project management classes beforehand to become better prepared? If not, you may not be holding up your end of the bargain when it comes to your system implementation.
- Are you doing everything you can to foster a good relationship with the vendor? Oftentimes, with a busy schedule, physicians and staff do not realize that they are consistently showing up late for meetings, brushing off vendor phone calls or are in some other way not building a working relationship with the vendor.
So, is it them or is it us? Remember that the answer may not be 100% clear, but you have to make the best decision you can with the information at hand. It is important to keep a cool head through this process. Many times, the group you may want to hold responsible for the problem may be the very group that saves the day in order to resolve your problem. So, be as fair and thoughtful as possible as you move through the problem identification process.
If you go through the necessary steps to understand the problem, assess your vendor’s responsibilities, and assess your own responsibilities and you still do not have a clear idea of where the responsibility lies, then get everyone in the same room to discuss the problem. You may be surprised to find out that in almost all cases of computer problems, everyone involved shares at least some of the responsibility, and with that you are a partnership and a team.