Implementation Tips for Healthcare Learning Management Systems

April 1, 2021
April 1, 2021

Getting ready to start an HealthStream Learning Center (HLC), HealthStream Competency Center (HCC), or HealthStream Performance Center (HPC) implementation? These three products can help improve how your organization provides healthcare as well as how you manage the people who provide it. Having all your resources in place before implementation begins can go a long way towards successful introduction of them. Here are a few quick pointers to get your team started on the right foot:

  1. Assign a Project Lead.  Every implementation is a joint effort between our clients and HealthStream.   Our best success stories happen when both HealthStream and our clients appropriately staff the project.  For you, that starts with assigning a strong project lead to hold your team accountable for setup tasks.
  2. Identify Executive Sponsor.  Projects are not as successful when an executive sponsor approves the purchase and delegates all responsibility to the implementation team.  Our best client implementations always have continued engagement throughout the project from your executive sponsor.  This ensures the sponsor’s vision for HealthStream is realized when they are actively engaged.
  3. Secure Data Team.  It is important to allocate the appropriate resources for setting up the demographic feed to HealthStream.  This task can literally make or break an implementation.  It is not uncommon in many healthcare organizations to see education have little influence over allocating the appropriate IT resource to this task.  During the selling process it is important for your executive sponsor to garner IT support for this task.  The main cause for projects to run beyond schedule is gaining IT resources for the demographic file.
  4. Provide Administrator Support.  It is important to allocate a resource to support HealthStream once it is live.  The size of your organization will determine whether or not this a full time position. Make sure your administrative resource, or resources, are properly trained.  If you have turn over in this position, ensure the backfill is formally trained and do not expect the person to learn on the fly.  Successful implementations can run into issues when there is turn over in a key administrator role and the backfill is not formally trained.   Also, use the HealthStream community.  We have a great help desk but there is no better way to get prepared than to speak with someone who has taken the task of rolling out HealthStream from the client side.  Our HealthStream User Groups and Community Site are great resources that are underutilized by new administrators.

One Recent HealthStream Customer Implementation Experience

We recently had a very successful implementation of a large health system on the HLC that provided resourcing as outlined in my post.  We were able to accelerate their implementation timeline for over 45,000 users from an estimated 12 – 15 month phased rollout to less than 9 months for all users.  The CNO was very engaged as the executive sponsor.  The project lead was a strong advocate and had authority over the project resources from the health system.  The data team was responsive and the resource conducting data review was very thorough.  All these elements combined with a strong HealthStream team worked together to forge a successful implementation.

By taking a few of the right steps on your end to prepare your organization for implementation, you will set your team up for success.  A great implementation experience requires a standardized process from HealthStream, strong resources from HealthStream, and a dedicated client team.  We provide the first two elements and need you to provide the last to ensure a successful implementation.