Medical practice reconfiguration

SITUATION:
A private specialist medical practice in Auckland contacted Independent IT consulting seeking advice on IT solutions. At the time the practice was two years old, was accommodated in a private hospital and was using that organisation’s technology facilities. They had grown to the stage that they required their own premises and, while they recognised that this required their own information technology and communication facilities, they had no idea what that involved or where to start.

Having seen Independent IT Consulting’s website, they contacted us and requested information and upon receipt if that, requested that we submit a proposal. What was important to the practice was that the advice they received was well informed but also, independent and vendor / product agnostic.
 
PROPOSAL:
The Independent IT Consulting proposal was simple in that it comprised up to three potential modules of service offering, each one dependent on the previous.
 
The first proposed piece of work was the Discovery phase.

This entailed extensive discussions with all practice stakeholders, owners, managers, administrators and users to identify what the current situation was in terms of business, technology deployed and used as well as what was required in short, medium and long term.
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We proposed that the outcome of the Discovery would be a document that detailed their current situation, objectives and made appropriate recommendations for actions to be taken.
 
Our proposal was accepted, and Independent IT Consulting progressed with a number of meetings, onsite and remotely.
 
ACTIONS:

• Stakeholder meetings with practice owners to establish and confirm terms of reference.
• On site meetings to sight and review current office arrangements and future office accommodation.
• Meetings on site with practice administration and management to map current processes and tools used.
• Remote meetings to discuss findings as they progressed.
• On site and remote meetings to confirm current technology tools used and perceived future tool requirements and preferences.
• Management and administration discussion on Practice Management Software deployed and realistic alternatives.

 
OUTCOMES:

1. Discovery document agreed and accepted.
2. Proposal to review current and future Practice Management Software agreed to be undertaken separately by the Practice Management.
3. Accepted recommendations for immediate technology solutions to enable relocation and improve Practice productivity.
4. Proposal for Independent IT Consulting to undertake IT vendor shortlist selection and to facilitate Practice Management selection and contract negotiation with preferred vendor.
5. Transition to new technology tools completed with selected IT service vendor.
6. Vendor selected and contracted to provide Information Technology infrastructure deployment and support at new Practice accommodation.

 
The Practice management were particularly pleased in that, through Independent IT Consulting, what had been perceived as a hugely complex and difficult task, became simple, pain free and easy.