Consultants Need to be Prepared for Alternate Client Support Work

We are in a state of emergency. There is no doubt that every industry is being impacted worldwide. For those of us who travel regularly, we are seeing empty airports and planes. Masked passengers and reduced services to protect us from getting sick. But the industry that we work in, Healthcare, will only get busier and busier with demands of testing, emergency services, and an enormous increase in call volume. As consultants we need to be prepared to provide support in any manner our clients see fit, and you can bet most of that will be remote and different from what you are used to doing.

Offices are closed and full time IT staff are working remotely to keep EHR systems running for clinical staff. It’s likely that major initiatives and go-lives are being delayed. Other project delivery efforts around optimization, upgrades, and training will need to take a back seat as priorities are realigned to meet the demands of patients. If you were supporting any of these types of projects, you may be stuck for a while with no work for some time. However, there are other urgent needs that our clients will be facing, and you need to be flexible and available if called upon.

Exhibiting flexibility and willingness to step in where needed will be essential to helping our customers, for as long as this takes. It may be simple work like triaging patient calls, patient portal support, prioritizing incoming tickets, tier 1 help desk level support, and/or other “keep the lights on” type of efforts. You can bet that Epic, Cerner, Meditech and others will be prepared for requests, and so should we. No doubt customers are looking to the experts for immediate EHR workflow changes specific to the testing and treatments associated with COVID-19. I would expect quick turn around on these efforts, and training support will be essential here.

If you are not heading to the airport tomorrow ask yourself, what services is your firm offering during this emergency that you might be able to support?  What other “roles” can you fill in and help with?  Reach out internally to your managers and leadership and extend an offer to help.  Let’s get through this, and help our clinicians focus on what they need to do, stop the spread of this virus.