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The paper documents our collaboration with our industry, government, and academic partners to prepare for the transition of a very large nationwide healthcare organization to a new electronic health record (EHR) system. We provided Human Factors and Business Process Modeling/Reengineering support as part of a multidisciplinary team comprising clinical informaticists, human factors engineers, business process analysts, process architects, requirements analysts, and business process re-engineers. Together we assessed the current state of clinical and administrative functions and the support the current EHR provides for these functions. We elicited, documented. and qualitatively analyzed workflows, workarounds, and process issues such as user interface issues and training gaps, at one of the organization’s representative healthcare facilities. Techniques employed included semi-structured interviews, contextual inquiry in remote data collection sessions with screen sharing of the user interface, Business Process Modeling and Notation (BPMN), and thematic analysis and visualization via Natural Language Processing (NLP). The article systematically documents our novel “Current State Workflow Assessment (CSWFA) method and illustrates how it integrates multiple techniques to evaluate and analyze work processes. The CSWFA method can also be employed in other facilities and other domains to support process improvement initiatives and optimize implementation of information systems in terms of user experience, productivity, and safety. Watson, Claire Hayes; Masalonis, Anthony (SST); Arnold, Tim; Chumbler, Neale R.; Plew. William (2023). Methods and Lessons Learned from a Current State Workflow Assessment following Transition to a New Electronic Health Record System. Perspectives in Health Information Management, 20 (2). Available www.perspectives.ahima.org/page/methods-and-lessons-learned-from-a-current-state-workflow-assessment-following-transition-to-a-new-electronic-health-record-system [...]

As a principal Subcontractor to Visionary Consulting Partners, LLC, Spectrum Software Technology, Inc., under the Veterans Admin IDIQ Won Task Order 6 – Models for Understanding End User Needs in a Pandemic: The Human Centered Design (HCD) approach requires understanding of users and the socio-technical systems impacting their decisions and actions. A critical step of HCD is to understand the users, the context of use, and their needs within the specified environment. The rapid response to the COVID pandemic has highlighted the various interdependent roles and functions necessary to support ongoing clinical operations for critical patient care while facing environmental exposure of a highly contagious virus. Our team conducts Day in the Life (DITL) user research to capture and understand end user needs and scenarios in the respective operational context of use that can inform national program office decision making and be leveraged in evaluation of workflows, identification of capability gaps and analysis of end user needs in the development of national solutions. This effort will include analysis and user research required to understand and explore user stories of how individuals responded to urgent needs at various environments and settings of care delivery (ED/Inpatient/Outpatient/etc.). As one of three companies selected out of a pool of competitors, this momentous win will allow the Visionary | SST Team to continue our commitment to our Nations’ Veterans and their families. [...]
Department of Veterans Affairs – The Visionary / SST team,
wins task order 6 under the $25m IDIQ for Human Factors services
Department of Veterans Affairs – the visionary / SST team,
wins task order 14 under the $25m IDIQ for Human Factors Services

As a principal Subcontractor to Visionary Consulting Partners, LLC, Spectrum Software Technology, Inc., under the Veterans Admin IDIQ Won Task Order 14 – Modernization of Health Systems: The Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC) includes many frameworks that can be applied to a complex adaptive system like modernizing Health Information Technology (HIT) systems. A critical component includes the functional decomposition of the complex system into elements that can be structured in a way to better understand the complexity and diversity of individual user groups’ requirements, in order to optimize to overall system design. The importance of a functional analysis is tethered to the critical business and user requirements, where the decomposition can be used to simplify the design validation and compliance with established functional capabilities. This process creates traceability with functional capabilities and performance criteria and provides clarity to all user groups as to the maturity of the system being transitioned to and the likelihood of successful adoption without complex workarounds that impact enterprise standardization. This information will inform the suitability of system design using simulation methods for human-system performance risks and evaluation of performance that determine the system adequacy and effectiveness. A key priority for Clinical Informatics and Data Management Office (CIDMO) is the creation of standardized models of care. One element of these models is the processes and workflows required to support and execute care delivery best practices. Once there is a clearly documented understanding of current state workflow, activities can be completed to redesign, improve, grow, and optimize the workflows that are part of the system of practice. Evidenced-based business process reengineering involves the necessary analysis and redesign of core business (e.g., clinical, administrative, etc.) processes/systems to achieve improvements in performance, productivity, safety, and quality. As one of three companies selected out of a pool of competitors, this momentous win will allow the Visionary | SST Team to continue our commitment to our Nations’ Veterans and their families. [...]