My Experience with Healthcare.gov

Being a technology focused healthcare professional who is also a consumer of healthcare, I wanted to have a first hand experience of how healthcare.gov is set up/work.

 

I had a change to create a login and navigate all the way into the healthcare.gov website. I took screen shots along the way to document what it looked and felt like. I tried the very first day and a few other times since then but did not go very far. Today, I made it through all the way.

This is not a blog about the politics or the law or the issues with the roll out. This is my experience with the website and the product.

I made a quick document with all that information - Attached to this post.

 

Social media – A 4 step tool!

It has baffled me how many webinars and research articles come out that discuss “making social media work for you”. So here is one more. But, I want to give a tool, that can be applied, rather than just talk about “social media”.

I am laying out a simple quadrant that will help you and your institution, small or large, come up with a workable plan for social media. This is a tool that could be applied to an individual as well. From a handyman to a healthcare institution, this could be used as a starting point.

Step 1:
List what type of engagement you are trying to get along the “x axis”.

Step 2:

List who you are trying to reach along the “y axis” – Audience.

The picture  gives you an example that shows a starting point for a hospital (or any other organization) 

 
Step 3:

Fill the quadrants with goals that fall under the cell. In the picture above, you will see Ambulatory marketing falling under “patient and patient family (audience) and informational outreach (type of engagement)”

Step 4:

The final step is to identify the technologies that will be used to accomplish the appropriate need identified in step 3. See picture that clearly shows what technology to use to accomplish specific goals. In some cases, it lists the “success” models that we could emulate, like Khan Academy.

 

Using this model, helps you have a meaningful conversation with the marketing department and help navigate the technologies meaningfully, rather than starting with “OK, now we have Pinterest, what are we doing with it?”.

Taking the ambiguity out of enterprise architecture

I have been in a lot of discussions lately about the framework, structure and functionality of an EA program. While it has been well defined and documented, there is a lack of basic reasoning why an effort towards EA should be made. Many technology shops already do that, even if there is no formal structure in place.

Here are the 4 cores of structures to be in place to build a credible EA program.  

1.       Intent: Start with “why”

The first step towards getting the EA program is to have a strong intent of what problem, vision, strategy or a new product line you are trying to accomplish.

You use this stage to define the

-          Motive,

-          Agenda and

-          Behavior that you expect from this EA effort.

Example: If the intent is to solve physician communication, you start with the intent on what kind of physician communication issues you are trying to solve. You define the motives behind the need, such as better peer to peer communication, nursing to physician communication etc.

You can further this by understanding the various agendas in play. What is the “agenda” that the physicians have in the need for communication and how does the nursing staff’s agenda match the physician expectation.

The last piece is understanding the behavior of the parties that we are trying to serve. In this example, we know physicians, in general, prefer not to have the contacts published and do not like carrying multiple devices. With a deep awareness of the intent, you are off to a good start towards setting up a working EA model.

2.       Integrity: Plan for congruence

The second step is to use the outputs from step 1 and lay out a well-integrated plan that is rooted in sound principles that acknowledges technology, process and people to resolve the issue.

Example: To continue the physician communication example, it is critical to have consistency that can be demonstrated and reproduced, with respect to technology and process, so the soundness of the plan can be repeated for all aspects of communication, be it nursing or physicians or administrators. This kind of integrity to the process will help drive the technology vision. Currently many of the “strategies” are driven by the product or vendor. While those are both important, without integrity and clarity in vision, most of these products remain as products and does not help you form a strong EA plan.

3.       Capabilities: Relevance to the intent

The third step is a feedback to step 1. A very capable plan, architecture, technology and strategy inspires confidence. This capability drives the capacity to produce and accomplish the “intent” – with the right talent, skills, expectation, tools and even behavior.

Example: Be it physicians or anyone else that is looking for a solution, your ability to demonstrate and communicate the capabilities of the architecture is going to drive the acceptance of the solution. This is the first stage where “products” should be studied and analyzed.

4.       Results: Create a track record

Like everything else, results matter. They matter enormously to the credibility of the EA program. People evaluate the results and equate it to the strategic over lay. So creating a strong EA program will eventually be “discovered” because of the results it produces and not because we have an EA program.

As a final note to the example, have a clear understanding of the problem (need for instant communication and call management) – Intent; proposing a well integrated plan (communication with other physicians, nurses and integration to your patient list) – Integrity; clear execution of the tools and processes to enable better communication (audit, secure directory) – Capability; will ultimately lead to better measured results that can be equated to the success of the EA program.

So, rather than worrying about the “EA Program” focus on the 4 steps and the outcome will be a successful EA program.