Agile, Transformative, and Timely: How Fluency Direct Tested HITS and Providers During a Global Pandemic
2021 Michigan IT Symposium Breakout Session from Wednesday, December 15 @ 3:15 pm

The Clinical Documentation Transformation Program received RFP responses on the day MM sent all HITS employees to work from home until the pandemic was over.  HITS working from a virtual environment kicked off a series of events that no one expected or planned for when requesting bids for a suite of applications to replace or implement: voice to text, computer assisted physician documentation, ambient voice technology, inpatient and outpatient coding. The CDT project team needed to switch gears quickly to reassess the contract process, the timelines, and how we would work with vendors and providers from a virtual environment.  

Working in a timeline determined by the ERP and a global pandemic, the CDT program tested the limits of the HITS processes. Out of the box thinking by every team involved in the program ensured that the first phase of the CDT program was able to implement two applications in parallel from RFP response to go live in 9 months. At the height of the first wave of the pandemic, Fluency Direct went live on January 9, 2021 with more than 1500 providers across MM all of whom had received virtual training from the vendor supplemented by MM videos and training materials. The same day Fluency went live, Transcription services and Dragon services were decommissioned, which involved additional vendors and teams in virtual environments. We were only able to achieve these timelines due to the incredible agility and willingness of every person involved in the projects to adapt and prioritize CDT.

Presenters: Polly Wierzbicki & Barb Zimdars, Michigan Medicine HITS

Area(s) of Focus: Precision Health & Patient Care, Knowledge, and Administration