• Mission, Vision & Values
• Newsroom
  • Press Releases
    • 2017 Archive
    • 2016 Archive
    • 2015 Archive
    • 2014 Archive
    • 2013 Archive
  • News
• Blog
• Events
• Leadership
• Report to the Community
• Awards & Recognitions
• Contact Us

Qualis Health Publishes Strategies for Successful Implementation of Government Health IT Projects

January 7, 2015

Case studies illuminate six key recommendations to assure implementation success

Seattle, WA - Qualis Health, one of the nation's leading population health management organizations, has published a white paper, "Addressing the Pitfalls of Government Health Information Technology Implementation Projects." Authors Bud Beall, MA, Peggy C. Evans, PhD, CPHIT, PCMH CCE, and Jeff Hummel, MD, MPH, outline key strategies to assure successful system implementation undertaken by state Medicaid programs and other government entities.

"Advances in technology and changes in health policy have led government agencies at all levels to update or implement new information systems," says Jonathan Sugarman, MD, MPH, Qualis Health President & CEO. "Qualis Health is committed to helping Medicaid agencies and others assure that these complex projects are completed in an effective and financially prudent manner. Our major objectives are to assist our government clients in being good stewards of public funds, and to support their efforts to improve population health and decrease per capita costs."

State Medicaid programs and other government healthcare agencies have been especially impacted by new regulatory requirements. Recent federal policies mandate implementation of Medicaid Management Information Systems that comply with new standards, the Affordable Care Act requires participating government agencies to adopt technology that can deliver advanced functionality, and other innovative technologies are being adopted with the intention of greater efficiencies and cost savings. The resulting system implementation projects are often complex in nature, large in size, and new in scope, resulting in implementation projects that run a high risk of failure.

In recent years, numerous state Medicaid MMIS implementation projects have suffered highly visible failures. However, technology implementation projects do not have to fail. The white paper, available at http://hit.qualishealth.org/resources, is the sixth in a series of landmark white papers issued by Qualis Health to guide the effective use of health IT. Based on case studies and a review of the multiple factors that contribute to the failure of an implementation project, it outlines six key mitigation strategies to assure successful implementation. The recommendations describe critical elements that, if followed, lead to a higher probability of implementation success. In addition to appropriate project resourcing, a key driver of success is a strategy to know when the project may be veering off path and to bring it back to the center.

Recently named among the 20 Most Promising Healthcare Consulting Providers by CIO Review, Qualis Health delivers deep health IT experience across a broad range of project oversight, independent verification and validation (IV&V), and quality assurance initiatives to a wide range of government and private-sector clients.