An Approach Based on Process Modeling for Implementing a Health Information Technology in Clinical Practice

The introduction of a new Health Information Technology (HIT) in a healthcare context is a very complex process. The aim of this study is to propose a completely original approach for the implementation a new HIT in a healthcare facility or department. This novel approach is made of four steps and based on process modeling. The first step is the identification of all the stakeholders involved. The second step consists in performing a detailed description of all clinical and administrative processes that will use the new HIT in order to understand how people, resources and documents interact among them. The third step allows the analysis of the HIT functionalities in order to highlight potential problems or risks that could emerge during its daily usage and guarantee its interoperability with other software. The fourth step concerns the construction of an adoption plan, in order to avoiding sharp transitions. A set of tools were associated to each step to guarantee a correct design and implementation. An application concerning the implementation of a new commercial HIT for Computerized Provider Order Entry (CPOE) in the oncology department of a large Italian hospital is reported as an example of the proposed approach. Furthermore, the user satisfaction about the introduction of the new CPOE in the oncology department was evaluated by means of a set of questionnaires. A positive evaluation of the process emerged from this analysis, confirming the goodness of the proposed approach. Moreover, the questionnaires results showed a high level of user satisfaction.