Implementing new clinical software for <your clinic name>

Project Plan

Version: 1.0	Date: dd-mm-yyyy

Table of Contents

1 What’s in scope?	3

1.1 Project Title	3

1.2 Background & Goals	3

1.3 Objective	3

1.4 Target Outcomes	3

1.5 Output(s)	3

1.6 Relevant Government Policy, Legislation and Rules	3

1.7 Not in scope	3

2 What is the plan?	4

2.1 Timeline	4

2.2 Budget & Expenditure	5

2.3 Roles	6

2.4 Communication plan	7

3 What might go wrong?	8

4 How did it go?	9

What’s in scope?

Project Title

Choose and install new clinical software.

Background & Goals

Describe why you are installing new clinical software (consider copying and pasting the goal statement you completed earlier).

Objective

The objective of this project is to install a clinical software system that improves the handling of our patient information and helps our practice processes to be more efficient, thereby bringing cost savings over time and improving patient outcomes.

Target Outcomes

Copy and paste the key processes from the benefits document completed earlier that you have decided to benchmark.

Output(s)

The Outputs to be delivered by this project are:

New clinical software installed.

Clinic processes updated and streamlined to align with the new software.

Relevant Government Policy, Legislation and Rules

Identify any government policies, legislation or rules and document their impact on the project.

The chosen clinical software will conform to our clinic’s Privacy Policy.

For RACGP members:

The chosen clinical software, and the processes we implement to support the software, will help the clinic to meet the following RACGP Guidelines (4th edition) criteria:

1.1.2 Telephone and electronic communications

1.3.1 Health promotion and preventive care

1.4.1 Consistent evidence based practice

1.5.2 Clinical handover

1.5.3 System for follow up of tests and results

1.6.2 Referral documents

1.7.1 Patient health records

1.7.2 Health summaries

1.7.3 Consultation notes

3.1.1 Quality improvement activities

3.1.2 Clinical risk management systems

3.1.3 Clinical governance

3.1.4 Patient identification

4.2.1 Confidentiality and privacy of health information

4.2.2 Information security

5.3.1 Safe and quality use of medicines

Not in scope

Practice management software.

What is the plan?

Timeline

List the milestones and major activities for the project. The Timeline assumes that the “Get Ready” phase of the process is complete.

Id	Description	Who	Scheduled Start	Scheduled Finish	Predecessor
Formal approval for project to install new clinical software	Practice Principal
Identify priority requirements for clinic	All (led by practice manager)
Analyse current market and decide upon shortlist of products	Practice manager, practice principal	1
Product evaluation Arrange vendor demonstration of products (focussing on the priority requirements). Arrange site visits to view products “in action” at other clinics (also focussing on the priority requirements).	Practice manager, practice principal, staff “champion”	2
Choose product	Practice Principal
Negotiate product price and finalise contract	Practice manager, vendor representative	5
Identify clinic processes that need changing or new ones needing development	Practice manager	5
Identify training needs	Practice manager	7
Develop training material and schedule	Practice manager	8
Obtain vendor statement on required hardware changes	Practice manager, vendor representative	5
Obtain new hardware and test	Practice manager	10
Work out how to get any existing data into the new system (including addresses, existing recalls/reminders, results etc)	Practice manager, IT support adviser	5
Ensure new or changed processes will be in place for next working day after installation	Practice manager	7
Draw up Service Level Agreement (SLA) with vendor	Practice manager, vendor representative	6
Schedule installation date and work out tasks for the day	Practice manager, IT support adviser	12
Back up existing data just prior to installation	IT support adviser	13
Install	IT support adviser	14
Celebrate installation	All	15
Review how new system is going, how processes are holding up and how staff perceive the changes	Practice manager	16
Take any necessary actions identified from review	Practice manager	17

Budget & Expenditure

Identify and summarise the project’s budget and expected expenditure in line with the project plan and financial planning.

Item	Cost
Product licence (for total FTE per year)
Installation (including vendor technical support)
IT support
Hardware upgrades (if applicable)
Training
Legal and accounting fees (if applicable)
TOTAL

Roles

Identify the key roles and fill in details.

Role Type	Role/s	Name	Job title (if applicable)
Business Owner	Approves: project commencement product selection budget installation schedule	Practice Principal
Project manager	Manages project, communication, staff expectations and participation, ensures key milestones are met on time.	Practice Manager
Project champion	Promotes project goals Liaises with other staff Provides feedback
IT support	Provides advice on: Software requirements Existing hardware Hardware requirements Installs system
Vendor representative	Provides advice on: Software requirements Hardware requirements Product features Licence costs Installation procedure Software or hardware incompatibilities

Communication plan

A suggested communication plan is written below. Plans can be informally structured (as below) or follow a formal schedule. Think about your own clinic and what the best approach might be.

Before the project commences, a special staff meeting will be held (all staff must attend). The session will be run by the Project Leader and the Project Champion. They will talk about the reasons behind the project and the expected outcome (remembering to allow room for questions). Some staff may be resistant to the project, and the aim of the initial meeting is to mitigate concerns and ask for feedback to help identify new ones.

After the meeting, the Project Champion will take time to talk to each staff member individually, and privately, to discuss the project and listen to any suggestions or other types of feedback.

Advance notice for each minor milestone in the Schedule will be given via the main staff email list. The major milestones (e.g. project commencement, product choice, produce installation, celebration) will be announced at the most appropriate staff meeting.

A special section on the clinic’s staff Notice Board will be allocated for the project. It will have the latest version of the Schedule, the list of Roles, a “Weekly Update”, and any other special notices. The Notice Board will also contain a summary of the outcome of each milestone

What might go wrong?

Id	Risk	Impact or consequence	Likelihood/ Seriousness	Grade	Action to prevent or mitigate	To be actioned by (see Roles)
<n>	Describe the risk	Describe how it will impact should it occur	e.g. High/Medium	e.g. High	What action will be taken to prevent or mitigate it?
Not enough time to follow all steps (especially to identify requirements, assess products and liaise with IT support)	Inadequate time to confirm requirements could result in a product that doesn’t meet priority needs and is ineffective.	High/High	High	Project schedule will be drawn up (see sample Schedule above) and approved by Business Owner. The schedule will be reviewed at each milestone. Project Manager and Business Owner will meet to discuss options if it is too far off track,	Project manager
Low level of staff engagement	Staff are unwilling to contribute (some initial extra effort will be required on behalf of almost all staff).
Vendor is not supportive	The vendor of the chosen product does not provide a sufficiently responsive help desk.	Medium/High	High
Cost overrun	The cost of the installation (and, if applicable, the migration of data from the old system) starts to look like a lot more than anticipated from the budget (see section 2.2. of this Plan).	Low/High	Medium	Project Manager will ensure an SLA is drawn up and signed before installation/migration commences.	Project Manager
Installation fails	Something goes wrong with the installation	Low/High	Medium

Use this section to identify things that might go wrong with the project and how they can be prevented or their impact minimised.

How did it go?

It is important that you evaluate the effectiveness of the new system. Set a schedule for doing so (not forgetting to enter dates in your calendar to remind you). Develop a method for review. A suggested approach is to pick out the requirements you flagged as the highest priority and to score how well they are working in the new system (see below). You may also want to do the same for the business processes that changed.

Requirement	Review score (how well the requirement scored after being reviewed)
Usable
Fast
Patient demographics
ATSI Status (AIHW guidelines)
History
Measurements
Diagnoses codes
Medications/Allergies
Drug interaction checking
Prescribing
Smoking status
Record by visit
Progress notes
Test results
Recalls & reminders
Warnings
Store incoming data
Standard terminology codes
Address book
HL7
Current system can be migrated
Vendor has good reputation

Process name	Review score

Milestones are in bold.

Activities in the Predecessor column must be completed prior to this activity commencing.