The proposed system-wide upgrade of Northwell’s EHR had been in planning stages and initially was scheduled to take place in early 2020. This would require the intensive support of many associates from both Northwell and its IT partner, Allscripts. Onsite collaboration across a whole range of locations was key to success of the planned go-live. The entire plan was in place when influenza and COVID-19 pandemic came into full force.
The upgrade, whose resulting features would optimize Northwell’s clinical and pharmaceutical workflows and documentation abilities, needed collaboration across all functions. It required the attention and support of information technology experts and clinicians all over the country. Six major applications were set to be upgraded simultaneously. Now with precautions against the pandemic in place, everything had to be managed remotely: upgrading software, managing fixes, testing, training and overseeing all other the intricate interlocking facets of an upgrade on this scale.
As the COVID-19 pandemic had an especially significant impact on New York, virtual collaboration was incorporated in order to stay on track. Over the weekend of September 12, 2020, the full go-live occurred on schedule and proved to be a great success. Allscripts and Northwell team members cited this as one of the smoothest upgrades of its type within their memory. More than 250 resources and 61,000 hours of effort and action brought about the full upgrade, and enabled all stakeholders involved to overcome challenges as they arose.
A particular challenge was the enhancement to Northwell’s electronic prescription functionality to comply with the new National Council for Prescription Drug Program (NCPDP) changes. All Northwell prescribers currently enrolled in ePrescribing required an update to their SPI number in order to continue to use the functionality. With more than 8,000 physicians who ePrescribe, there were 110,000 active SPIs requiring an update. This was one of the largest code updates from this application to Surescripts in Allscripts history. In this case, application experts in multiple countries – the U.S., Canada and India – were involved in the activation process. Regular communication in the lead-up, including weekly calls with the team, ensured all possible issues were identified and addressed appropriately. It also meant team members were accustomed to communicating swiftly with one another by the time the activation took place, as well as recognizing where problems might arise and which solutions would be most effective. Due to this extensive preparation, this upgrade ran smoothly, efficiently and without errors.
With similar strategies in place in its other aspects, Northwell’s upgrade succeeded within expected outage time and no system issues. Northwell and Allscripts associates alike stepped up to adapt the scope of the project, collaborating virtually and offering remote support. The outcome here has laid the foundation to achieve even more, not only with further opportunities to do remotely what once had to be done onsite, but to build even greater technical functionality to provide better care in the future.
