USE AND ACCEPTANCE OF THE ECLIPSYS AMBULATORY CARE MANAGER
By Sue Still, RN
With a few clicks of a mouse the healthcare provider can now see a complete picture of the patient’s
healthcare record. Eclipsys Ambulatory Care Manager, places at that healthcare provider’s disposal, the
orders, results, documents, immunization record and prescriptions in one electronic health record. With
implementation of the Ambulatory Care Manager, a patient can visit various clinics/offices within a network and
all providers can see the same information.
The physician offices and clinics of today are very demanding and fast paced since many providers are
scheduled to see one patient every 15 to 30 minutes. This demanding schedule leaves little or no time to learn
new ways of documenting a patient’s healthcare.
Implementing an electronic health record in the ambulatory setting can be very challenging at best. And although
Eclipsys has put together a great software package, with that goal in mind, the ensuing implementation is not
frustration free. There are many things we, as analysts, can do to help the transition from a paper to
electronic health record go smoothly.
Involve a team of end users from the beginning of the search and configuration of the product. This team will
comprise your super users and product champions when it is time to go Live. Do not make the mistake of assuming
that all clinics and providers work the same way. Do a careful workflow analysis and design. The design of how
their world will change from paper to electronic is important and needs to be clear to the end user. They need
to be provided a vision for what this will look like.
Orders and order sets within the Ambulatory Care manager can be the same as what is used for inpatients.
However, what I have found is that the inpatient world does not exactly fit the Ambulatory world. So, you may
want to do some creative things like use MLM’s called from forms to hide fields that would not be used in
that setting. Create order sets that are specific to the clinic environment. The goal is to make this as user
friendly as possible. Test everything thoroughly prior to Go Live and count the total number of mouse clicks -
yes count the number of mouse clicks it takes for the end user to submit an order. Over the course of a day,
twenty to thirty patients, two emergencies plus phone calls will cause the provider to abandon the system out of
frustration if it is not easy, and quick, to use.
Other things one can do to help with use and acceptance is to encourage the clinics and offices to cut back
on the patient schedule for a couple of weeks, prior to Go Live, to allow the providers to master the
application and get past the learning curve. In saying this, one must realize that appointments are made many
months in advance. So, set a date for Go Live and be ready to make that date.
End user education can make or break your success at implementation. I have found that physicians will
respond better if the education is one on one. Be flexible with the times of day that training sessions are
held. Try to use the super users you developed during the build phase and have them teach the providers.
Physicians respond even better when training is peer to peer.
Eclipsys has done a wonderful job of creating a product that will enhance the workflow of the physician
offices and clinics as well as provide a safer patient care environment. Changing from paper to electronic can
be a difficult time for all, however with a little creativity the product can be developed to be
institution-specific and user friendly.