Implementation:  Integrating consumer technology – or not
My Space, RSS feeds, blogs, instant messaging, podcasts, iPhones, Facebook, Google maps, text messages and the list goes on.  Consumer technologies have hit mainstream and are knocking on the door of your company.  Who’s there?  Your employees, customers, referral sources and business partners.  Within the next few years, 100 percent of the people in the 18 – 35 age group will be natives of the digital environment and their expectations are being set by this environment.  What's your opportunity?   Organizations that leverage consumer technologies allow their staff to better manage personal and professional demands and present a more friendly face to the outside world.  These are the organizations that will win. 

→Action item:   Notice the technologies your employees are using.  Ask them how they feel they could be utilized in your company and to interact with others outside the company.  Be willing to take a chance.  Integrate consumer technology into your personal life, even if you feel you don't need it.  Most of all, understand the security concerns these technologies introduce and mitigate your risk.

Management:  Get it right from the start with an accurate patient census
Too often home infusion providers base their expectations of future results on an inaccurate or misunderstood census.  Future revenues are estimated on the payer/therapy mix of your current census.  How many new patients, where did they come from, which patients were discharged or went on hold due to hospitalization or some other cause.  Grouping patients by their primary insurance isn’t very valuable if their primary insurance doesn’t cover their therapy.  Counting patients as active misrepresents the value of your census if you haven’t made a delivery to the patient in 45 days.  An accurate census will not only support the clinical management of your patients, it will get you started in the right direction in forecasting future revenue and cash flow.

→Action item:  Assure your daily process will provide the check and balance to verify that your census is correct.  Enforce the minimum data standards in the patient intake process.  Don't expect your census (or your financial forecasts) to be accurate if your employees use a big white board to determine workload and spreadsheets to report census.

Audit:  System access requirements change as a systems stabilizes
When you are implementing a new system it is often “all hands on deck”, helping one another learn how to do their job, correcting mistakes, entering data from old systems, working with patient data from other sites, etc.  HIPAA and good business sense demand flexible security access roles and the software vendors have, for the most part, responded.  But be sure to review user privileges regularly to make sure that they conform to their current position.  Don’t get caught with a dozen “super users” in your system or terminated employees who still have logins to the system.    

→Action item:  Establish a system access audit function outside the group who is responsible for the administration of your information system. Document standard privileges by job function and audit these at least once a year.  Audit compliance at least twice per year.