[MEDITECH-L] How Many IT Staff Members at Small Hospitals?

[Gary Hall]

Not sure this got through the other night…

 

OK, L, statistics time to help me justify staff.

 

We are a rural critical-access hospital in the high mountains in Colorado. 25 inpatient beds, a 60-bed nursing home, seven-physician clinic part of the hospital that uses Allscripts EHR, and we have Meditech Magic 5.61 ADM, ABS, MRI, B/AR, AP, EPS, PCI, NUR, LAB, RAD, GL, MM, ARM, OE, PP, SCH, almost PHA, all the usual suspects (MIS, OPS, HIS, NPR, NMI), 10 interfaces and more coming, 230 PCs, laptops, & tablets, 330 computer users, and so on.

 

We handle that with two IT analysts (doing all the Meditech & Allscripts software support and tons of other related items), two network/hardware guys, and me (clinical analyst background, doing a lot of that stuff still, including the interface work).

 

Compared to other with reasonably similar configurations, are we (1) overstaffed, (2) understaffed, (3) woefully understaffed, (4) about right?

 

Even if you’re not the same size, it’d be interesting to hear your stats.

 

If you think we’re overstaffed, you’ll have to explain to me why I’m writing this at nearly midnight on a Tuesday night… J

 

Gary Hall

Director of Information Technology

Estes Park Medical Center

970-577-4443 (office)

970-744-9052 (cell)

970-577-4355 (fax)

 

 

  

The information contained in this message may be privileged and confidential and protected from disclosure.  If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, or an employee or agent responsible for delivering this message to the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited.  If you have received this communication in error, please notify the sender of this communication immediately.

[Mitch Lawrence]

4 maybe a slight 2

Mitch

_____

From: meditech-...@mtusers.com [mailto:meditech-...@mtusers.com]
On Behalf Of Gary Hall
Sent: Thursday, March 12, 2009 1:24 PM
To: medit...@MTusers.com
Subject: [MEDITECH-L] How Many IT Staff Members at Small Hospitals?

Not sure this got through the other night...

OK, L, statistics time to help me justify staff.

We are a rural critical-access hospital in the high mountains in Colorado.
25 inpatient beds, a 60-bed nursing home, seven-physician clinic part of the
hospital that uses Allscripts EHR, and we have Meditech Magic 5.61 ADM, ABS,
MRI, B/AR, AP, EPS, PCI, NUR, LAB, RAD, GL, MM, ARM, OE, PP, SCH, almost
PHA, all the usual suspects (MIS, OPS, HIS, NPR, NMI), 10 interfaces and
more coming, 230 PCs, laptops, & tablets, 330 computer users, and so on.

We handle that with two IT analysts (doing all the Meditech & Allscripts
software support and tons of other related items), two network/hardware
guys, and me (clinical analyst background, doing a lot of that stuff still,
including the interface work).

Compared to other with reasonably similar configurations, are we (1)
overstaffed, (2) understaffed, (3) woefully understaffed, (4) about right?

Even if you're not the same size, it'd be interesting to hear your stats.

If you think we're overstaffed, you'll have to explain to me why I'm writing

this at nearly midnight on a Tuesday night... :-)

[cbodn...@rcrh.org]

I'm down for a 3....
No matter how many beds you have, a problem is the same process to resolve. Are these two employees separated functionally for finance, and clinical?
And not sure what an 'almost PHA' is.... Not yet live? Are you scripting?
:)
Hope this helps,
Cindy

From: meditech-...@mtusers.com [mailto:meditech-...@mtusers.com] On Behalf Of Mitch Lawrence
Sent: Thursday, March 12, 2009 12:32 PM
To: 'Gary Hall'; medit...@MTusers.com
Subject: Re: [MEDITECH-L] How Many IT Staff Members at Small Hospitals?

4 maybe a slight 2

Mitch
________________________________

From: meditech-...@mtusers.com [mailto:meditech-...@mtusers.com] On Behalf Of Gary Hall
Sent: Thursday, March 12, 2009 1:24 PM
To: medit...@MTusers.com
Subject: [MEDITECH-L] How Many IT Staff Members at Small Hospitals?

Not sure this got through the other night...

OK, L, statistics time to help me justify staff.

We are a rural critical-access hospital in the high mountains in Colorado. 25 inpatient beds, a 60-bed nursing home, seven-physician clinic part of the hospital that uses Allscripts EHR, and we have Meditech Magic 5.61 ADM, ABS, MRI, B/AR, AP, EPS, PCI, NUR, LAB, RAD, GL, MM, ARM, OE, PP, SCH, almost PHA, all the usual suspects (MIS, OPS, HIS, NPR, NMI), 10 interfaces and more coming, 230 PCs, laptops, & tablets, 330 computer users, and so on.

We handle that with two IT analysts (doing all the Meditech & Allscripts software support and tons of other related items), two network/hardware guys, and me (clinical analyst background, doing a lot of that stuff still, including the interface work).

Compared to other with reasonably similar configurations, are we (1) overstaffed, (2) understaffed, (3) woefully understaffed, (4) about right?

Even if you're not the same size, it'd be interesting to hear your stats.

If you think we're overstaffed, you'll have to explain to me why I'm writing this at nearly midnight on a Tuesday night... :)

Gary Hall
Director of Information Technology
Estes Park Medical Center
970-577-4443 (office)
970-744-9052 (cell)
970-577-4355 (fax)

The information contained in this message may be privileged and confidential and protected from disclosure. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, or an employee or agent responsible for delivering this message to the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please notify the sender of this communication immediately.

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[Diane Clampitt]

Greetings from your neighbor over the mountain. We are double your size and staff. We would like to add another, but will have to wait for now.

Diane Clampitt
Delta County Memorial Hospital
Delta,CO 81416
970-874-6483

________________________________
From: meditech-...@mtusers.com [mailto:meditech-...@mtusers.com] On Behalf Of Gary Hall

Sent: Thursday, March 12, 2009 12:24 PM

To: medit...@MTusers.com
Subject: [MEDITECH-L] How Many IT Staff Members at Small Hospitals?

Not sure this got through the other night...

OK, L, statistics time to help me justify staff.

We are a rural critical-access hospital in the high mountains in Colorado. 25 inpatient beds, a 60-bed nursing home, seven-physician clinic part of the hospital that uses Allscripts EHR, and we have Meditech Magic 5.61 ADM, ABS, MRI, B/AR, AP, EPS, PCI, NUR, LAB, RAD, GL, MM, ARM, OE, PP, SCH, almost PHA, all the usual suspects (MIS, OPS, HIS, NPR, NMI), 10 interfaces and more coming, 230 PCs, laptops, & tablets, 330 computer users, and so on.

We handle that with two IT analysts (doing all the Meditech & Allscripts software support and tons of other related items), two network/hardware guys, and me (clinical analyst background, doing a lot of that stuff still, including the interface work).

Compared to other with reasonably similar configurations, are we (1) overstaffed, (2) understaffed, (3) woefully understaffed, (4) about right?

Even if you're not the same size, it'd be interesting to hear your stats.

If you think we're overstaffed, you'll have to explain to me why I'm writing this at nearly midnight on a Tuesday night... :)

Gary Hall
Director of Information Technology
Estes Park Medical Center
970-577-4443 (office)
970-744-9052 (cell)
970-577-4355 (fax)

The information contained in this message may be privileged and confidential and protected from disclosure. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, or an employee or agent responsible for delivering this message to the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please notify the sender of this communication immediately.

[Joe George]

Gary,

We are a small hospital in Alabama licensed for 81 beds. Our current I.T. staff supports 20 servers of which 6 are Magic, about 250 pcs/laptops and all Financial and Clinical Meditech applications.

Meditech Applications: ABS,ADM,AP,BAR,BMV,DR,EDM,ESS,FA,GL,LAB,MIS,MM,MRI,NMI(12 interfaces from Varian,MedMined,Labcorp,Pyxis,Witt)NUR,OE,ORM,PCI,PHA,PP,RAD,SCH

We also get involved on some Non-Meditech Applications: FUJI PACS, GE Centricity, Witt Cathlab, Varian Rad/Onc Med/Onc

Future Applications: 2009 Meditech's PCM and Cost Accounting, Kronos T/A, Iatrics Scanning/Achiving, Medquest Radiology Voice Recognition Transcription
2010 Meditech's Patient/Internet Gateway, either FormFast or Access, Some kind of Scripting Tool.
2011 Either LSS PPM or Iatric POI or some other vendor to share patient info from our organization to the physician's office, Medical Records Voice Recognition.

I.T. Director(1) NPR writing, along with Director responsibilities.

Financial Analyst(1) Supports all Financial applications and NPR writing.

Clinical Analyst(2) Supports all Clinical Applications in addition to being members of Core Measures Team, Clinical Resource Team and any JCAHO standard team which may involve I.T. assistance.

Network Administrators(2) Supports all servers, pc/laptops, VPN and networking switches/routers, wireless access points,etc.

I'll be re-evaluating our staffing needs later this year for 2010 Budget.

I hopes this help

-----Original Message-----
From: meditech-...@mtusers.com [mailto:meditech-...@mtusers.com]On Behalf Of Gary Hall
Sent: Thursday, March 12, 2009 1:24 PM
To: medit...@MTusers.com
Subject: [MEDITECH-L] How Many IT Staff Members at Small Hospitals?

Not sure this got through the other night...

OK, L, statistics time to help me justify staff.

We are a rural critical-access hospital in the high mountains in Colorado. 25 inpatient beds, a 60-bed nursing home, seven-physician clinic part of the hospital that uses Allscripts EHR, and we have Meditech Magic 5.61 ADM, ABS, MRI, B/AR, AP, EPS, PCI, NUR, LAB, RAD, GL, MM, ARM, OE, PP, SCH, almost PHA, all the usual suspects (MIS, OPS, HIS, NPR, NMI), 10 interfaces and more coming, 230 PCs, laptops, & tablets, 330 computer users, and so on.

We handle that with two IT analysts (doing all the Meditech & Allscripts software support and tons of other related items), two network/hardware guys, and me (clinical analyst background, doing a lot of that stuff still, including the interface work).

Compared to other with reasonably similar configurations, are we (1) overstaffed, (2) understaffed, (3) woefully understaffed, (4) about right?

Even if you're not the same size, it'd be interesting to hear your stats.

If you think we're overstaffed, you'll have to explain to me why I'm writing this at nearly midnight on a Tuesday night... :-)

[Ickes, Robert]

***********************
This message has been scanned by the InterScan for CSC SSM and found to be free of known security risks.
***********************

We are staffed about the same as you are right now (about a 2).

1 - IT Director (hands on)
1 - Network Engineer/Systems Administrator/Telecom Analyst
1 - Helpdesk/Desktop applications/PC Tech

1 - Systems Director - performs clinical analyst role
1 - Financial Systems Analyst

We are hoping to add a PACS/systems administrator later this year.

We outsourced our interface engine and its maintenance to Summit.

Bob Ickes, MS, CPHIT
Financial Systems Analyst
Grand River Hospital District
970-625-6536

________________________________

From: meditech-...@mtusers.com
[mailto:meditech-...@mtusers.com] On Behalf Of Gary Hall
Sent: Thursday, March 12, 2009 12:24 PM
To: medit...@MTusers.com
Subject: [MEDITECH-L] How Many IT Staff Members at Small Hospitals?

Not sure this got through the other night...

OK, L, statistics time to help me justify staff.

We are a rural critical-access hospital in the high mountains in
Colorado. 25 inpatient beds, a 60-bed nursing home, seven-physician
clinic part of the hospital that uses Allscripts EHR, and we have
Meditech Magic 5.61 ADM, ABS, MRI, B/AR, AP, EPS, PCI, NUR, LAB, RAD,
GL, MM, ARM, OE, PP, SCH, almost PHA, all the usual suspects (MIS, OPS,
HIS, NPR, NMI), 10 interfaces and more coming, 230 PCs, laptops, &
tablets, 330 computer users, and so on.

We handle that with two IT analysts (doing all the Meditech & Allscripts
software support and tons of other related items), two network/hardware
guys, and me (clinical analyst background, doing a lot of that stuff
still, including the interface work).

Compared to other with reasonably similar configurations, are we (1)
overstaffed, (2) understaffed, (3) woefully understaffed, (4) about
right?

Even if you're not the same size, it'd be interesting to hear your
stats.

If you think we're overstaffed, you'll have to explain to me why I'm

writing this at nearly midnight on a Tuesday night... :-)

Gary Hall

Director of Information Technology

Estes Park Medical Center

970-577-4443 (office)

970-744-9052 (cell)

970-577-4355 (fax)

The information contained in this message may be privileged and
confidential and protected from disclosure. If the reader of this
message is not the intended recipient, or an employee or agent
responsible for delivering this message to the intended recipient, you
are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of
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The contents of this message, the fact that this message has been sent, and any attachments to this message are proprietary and confidential, and intended for the exclusive use of the individual or individuals to whom the sender intended to direct this message. If you are not the intended recipient or the employee or agent of the intended recipient, then you are hereby notified that any and all copying, reproduction, forwarding, archiving, distribution, disclosure or other transmission of this message is strictly prohibited. If you have received this message in error, please notify the sender by reply email or by calling 1-970-625-6559, delete this message and any attachments to it, take those measures necessary to ensure that no record or copy of this message is retained on your system, server or other method of retention, and destroy any tangible matters related to this message.

[Joe adams]

If you were part of my organization, you are just way too over staffed.

We are small facility licensed for around 70 beds, 200 bed nursing home, which we assist in supporting their IT needs(couple dozen pc's and printers). a clinic with around 7 pc's, (also like the nursing home.. we support their needs too)

We recently merged with our sister organization, which brings in another 300 pc's 50 some odd printers.

Meditech Magic - ABS, ADM, AP, BAR, CWS, ESS, GL, LAB, MM, OE, ORM, PHA, PP, RAD($T) plus the traditional MIS, NPR, ext ops.

How does the staffng look you ask?

CFO in charge of the IT dept. 2 directors, 1 for each site. 2 pc/techs. 1 for each site.

OH I forgot, we contracted out our printers, routers,

I am one of the Techs...

My duties, pc's, servers, switches, assisting with cabling runs when need, novell user admin, help desk, NPR reports in all modules, so I am neither clinical or financial biased.. It's all the same to me. Setting up devices in OPS, be it pc's, printers, or lab analyzers. ( I even get to make the modular adapters for the analyzers for both facilities, YEA!), user maintenance for Meditech, dictionary maintenance on an as needed basis. AND on call 24/7.

I feel like a used match.

Joe

----- Original Message -----
From: Gary Hall
To: medit...@MTusers.com
Sent: Thursday, March 12, 2009 2:24 PM
Subject: [MEDITECH-L] How Many IT Staff Members at Small Hospitals?

Not sure this got through the other night.

OK, L, statistics time to help me justify staff.

We are a rural critical-access hospital in the high mountains in Colorado. 25 inpatient beds, a 60-bed nursing home, seven-physician clinic part of the hospital that uses Allscripts EHR, and we have Meditech Magic 5.61 ADM, ABS, MRI, B/AR, AP, EPS, PCI, NUR, LAB, RAD, GL, MM, ARM, OE, PP, SCH, almost PHA, all the usual suspects (MIS, OPS, HIS, NPR, NMI), 10 interfaces and more coming, 230 PCs, laptops, & tablets, 330 computer users, and so on.

We handle that with two IT analysts (doing all the Meditech & Allscripts software support and tons of other related items), two network/hardware guys, and me (clinical analyst background, doing a lot of that stuff still, including the interface work).

Compared to other with reasonably similar configurations, are we (1) overstaffed, (2) understaffed, (3) woefully understaffed, (4) about right?

Even if you're not the same size, it'd be interesting to hear your stats.

If you think we're overstaffed, you'll have to explain to me why I'm writing this at nearly midnight on a Tuesday night. J

Gary Hall

Director of Information Technology

Estes Park Medical Center

970-577-4443 (office)

970-744-9052 (cell)

970-577-4355 (fax)

The information contained in this message may be privileged and confidential and protected from disclosure. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, or an employee or agent responsible for delivering this message to the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please notify the sender of this communication immediately.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Paul Goedicke]

I think it's hard to compare staffing based simply on the beds, users, pc's, printers, and modules. You also have to consider how much hand-holding of users is required to implement and maintain the modules and equipment. Some of our departments have superusers that need little guidance or assistance (usually with NPR reports), while others need hand-holding and pushing from behind just to utilize the basics of the software. We previously used an Access database, and now use Array Task+ software to document our work, which is used when requesting additional staff. By some of the "standards" I've seen posted, we are over-staffed, but I'd bet our users are probably more satisfied with our performance. As we complete requested improvements or utilization previously not implemented, we tend to stimulate additional requests for improved usability of the modules because they know we will follow through with evaluation (and implementation, if possible) of requests in a reasonable timeframe.
My two cent's worth,
Paul

Paul Goedicke
Clinical Analyst III
Jackson County Memorial Hospital
1200 E. Pecan Street
Altus, OK 73521
Phone (580) 477-7485
Fax (580) 477-7366
paulgo...@jcmh.com

"Experience is what you get when you were expecting something else."

Gary Hall

Director of Information Technology

Estes Park Medical Center

970-577-4443 (office)

970-744-9052 (cell)

970-577-4355 (fax)

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[Mitch Lawrence]

You are grossly understaffed and IMHO your organization is flirting with
disaster.

Mitch

-----Original Message-----
From: meditech-...@mtusers.com [mailto:meditech-...@mtusers.com]
On Behalf Of Joe adams
Sent: Monday, March 16, 2009 2:18 PM
To: medit...@mtusers.com

[Carpenter, Michael--IRM]

Hi Meditech l'ers: for those magic (5.6+) sites that converted to v2
allergens did you significantly more time added for order set
processing? If so were you able to make any adjustments to settings in
cdp, etc to spped it up? Did Meditech provide an explanation/ solution?

Thanks much!

Mike

Michael D. Carpenter
Senior Systems Analyst, Meditech Clinicals
Inland Northwest Health Services
601 W. First Avenue
Spokane, Wa 99201
509-232-8340
car...@inhs.org

[Daisy A. Reyna]

We are also a small Meditech Magic facility, licensed for 49 beds. We manage ABS, ADM, AP, BAR, EDM, EPS, ESS, FA, GL, LAB, MIS, MM, MOX, MRI, NMI (Mayo, Pyxis, Siemens and Dictaphone interfaces), OE, PCI PHA, PP and RXM and as you refer to the traditional OPS, MIS and NPR. Including printers, pc's, servers and thin clients we manage over 400 pieces of equipment. We have a Home Health facility, Physician Billing facility, Internal Medicine Clinic, 2 OB Clinics and a Peds Clinic, 3 Physical Therapy Clinics, and a couple of outreach lab clinics. We are in the middle of managing 2 new clinics that are at least 20-30 miles in distance and this is all done with a staff of four. Our Manager, 1 Networking guy, 1 Clinical Analysis and myself a jack of all trades master of none. Life is never boring here.

Daisy Reyna
Delta County Memorial Hospital
Delta, CO
dre...@deltahospital.org

[Lisee, Jan]

We got some PHA DTSs to assist with this. Be persistent with your
consultant...

Janice B Lisee RNC, BSN
Senior Systems Analyst
Frederick Memorial Hospital
240-566-3437
<mailto:jli...@fmh.org>

[Kemp, Chad - Information Systems]

Paul had it right when you have to consider the level of user
independence and whether you have super users to help support the
applications. One other thing that hasn't been mentioned is the scope
and frequency of new projects. Hospitals that keep only enough staff to
maintain current applications forgo the opportunity to grow or improve
existing systems. The fact that you are adding interfaces suggests new
applications or at least additional integration. Unless the interfaces
are vanilla they can be quite a drain on resources until they are
stable. It might be useful to look at how critical resources are
utilized and whether some of their more mundane tasks can be shifted to
helpdesk or super users.

Chad Kemp
Information Systems Analyst
Firelands Regional Medical Center
419-557-7874

Gary Hall

Director of Information Technology

Estes Park Medical Center

970-577-4443 (office)

970-744-9052 (cell)

970-577-4355 (fax)

[tel...@rha1.org]

This is why benchmarking IT staff is difficult. Obviously at some of the facilities there
are different methods of accomplishing the IT support that don't involve staffing in IT,
or the EMR score is low so the needs of the users are lower.

We are licensed at 99 beds but have an average census of 35. We have 2 small offsite
clinics and a couple onsite, a couple of other offsite units like Rehab, Billing.
We support the full Meditech suite of products (except we don't have POM yet), along with a
slew of Windows based apps, PACS, dictaphone, Omnicell, etc. We have a staff of 12 in IT.
Within the 12, we have 3 dedicated Help Desk staff who stay very busy all day, 5-days per
week, just responding to work orders. The rest of us all take work orders throughout the
day as well as working on projects and implementations. We do not have staffing to meet
all the demands and have augmented with NPR report writing thru Iatrics, use of consultants
for projects, contracts for network assistance and support, etc. We all work very hard and
put in a lot of hours.

I don't know how you can support what you list below with a staff of 4. How did you
implement EDM? Do you have Physician ordering and documentation live? We have EDM fully
live including the phys documentation and it tied up 2 IT people for a year, and
we had part time ED staff assisting. I don't see NUR on your list. Are you documenting
online with NUR and all the ancillaries? Do you have EMAR/BMV live? Do you have MPM or
another clinic software at your clinics? How many hours a week do you work on the average?

Marjorie Tell
Vice President - Information Technology
Riverview Hospital Association
715-424-8574

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
Tue Mar 17, 2009 10:43 am From: "Daisy A. Reyna" <dr

From: "Daisy A. Reyna" <dre...@deltahospital.org>
To: "medit...@mtusers.com" <medit...@mtusers.com>
Subj: Re: [MEDITECH-L] How Many IT Staff Members at Small Hospitals?
Date: Tue, 17 Mar 2009 09:43:12 -0600

We are also a small Meditech Magic facility, licensed for 49 beds. We manage ABS, ADM, AP, BAR, EDM, EPS, ESS, FA, GL, LAB, MIS, MM, MOX, MRI, NMI (M
ayo, Pyxis, Siemens and Dictaphone interfaces), OE, PCI PHA, PP and RXM and as you refer to the traditional OPS, MIS and NPR. Including printers, pc's
, servers and thin clients we manage over 400 pieces of equipment. We have a Home Health facility, Physician Billing facility, Internal Medicine Clin
ic, 2 OB Clinics and a Peds Clinic, 3 Physical Therapy Clinics, and a couple of outreach lab clinics. We are in the middle of managing 2 new clinics
that are at least 20-30 miles in distance and this is all done with a staff of four. Our Manager, 1 Networking guy, 1 Clinical Analysis and myself a
jack of all trades master of none. Life is never boring here.


Daisy Reyna
Delta County Memorial Hospital
Delta, CO
dre...@deltahospital.org

-----Original Message-----
From: meditech-...@mtusers.com [mailto:meditech-...@mtusers.com] On Behalf Of Mitch Lawrence
Sent: Tuesday, March 17, 2009 7:07 AM
To: 'Joe adams'; medit...@mtusers.com
Subject: Re: [MEDITECH-L] How Many IT Staff Members at Small Hospitals?

You are grossly understaffed and IMHO your organization is flirting with
disaster.

Mitch

-----Original Message-----
From: meditech-...@mtusers.com [mailto:meditech-...@mtusers.com]

The information contained in this message may be privileged and
confidential and protected from disclosure. If the reader of this message
is not the intended recipient, or an employee or agent responsible for
delivering this message to the intended recipient, you are hereby notified
that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this communication is
strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error,
please notify the sender of this communication immediately.




----------------------------------------------------------------------------
--

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

[Diane Clampitt]

What we have is what we listed. EDM is used for nursing documentation/assessments ordering etc.. RXM for home meds and allergies.
Our physicians do not use the system for ordering, all orders are place by the ward secretary. We also have not implemented EMAR/BMV but are planning to do so along with NUR in the next year and we may get to hire 1 more person at this time. We also run an average of 35 in our census. As the token clinical analyst here, I also have to be very versed in non-clinical modules, Printer maintenance and networking/interface issues. We manage well with our small staff, but that's not to say when we start implementing more advanced clinical modules, we won't need more help...

Diane Clampitt
Delta County Memorial Hospital
Delta,CO 81416
970-874-6483

[Gary Hall]

Benchmarking is, as you say, difficult, since there are so many ways that the workload can be balanced. I've received MANY replies -- this is a popular subject!

As some responders noted, the level of expertise imbedded in your clinical, financial, and other departments can have a strong bearing on how much IT staff you need. Another huge factor is the talent level & multitasking ability of the staff you have; other factors include support of your board & senior leaders, $$$ available, software & hardware tools available, and so on.

Module implementations & other projects are the hardest thing to absorb, and if staff is limited, you need to schedule these as much as possible to not land on each other more than absolutely necessary. Doesn't stop us from project overload, but it does help us avoid some overdoses.

Yes, benchmarking is tough -- but possible. I'll go work on my bell curve now. Thanks for all the great discussion.

Gary Hall
Director of Information Technology
Estes Park Medical Center
970-577-4443 (office)
970-744-9052 (cell)
970-577-4355 (fax)

[tel...@rha1.org]

You have a good list Gary. These are additional items I think need to be considered:

# of users supported
# of doctors supported
# of locations supported
volume and types of outpatient services
# & type of Meditech modules and level of customization
(Adv. clinicals, Data Repository take more support. Modules like AP, GL need almost 0)
# & size of non Meditech modules & systems
(We have dzns such as fetal monitoring, Kronos, SQL databases, Kreg, Valco archiving,
BGM, MedDietary, MedSurg, MedCred, Medisolv, etc)
technical base
(MS Exchange, blackberry svcs, firewalls, VPNs, VMWare, MSOffice install base, etc)
# of interfaces
PACS and whether main support is in IT or Imaging
other systems supported by IT & type (phones - VoIP or legacy, voice mail system. paging,
cell, cable TV. voice recognition, etc).
Whether Biomed reports to IT
IT training expectations/hours - new user training, nurse training, computer training,
Other expectations (for example, we print and fill all the newborn photo orders, used to
print all the business cards, etc)
# of end user devices, printers, scanners, PDAs,
# of servers
how wired & wireless
cable runs & punch downs done by IT or outsourced
how thorough are plans/documentation for Disaster Preparedness, downtime procedures, HIPAA
compliance
Annual IT capital budget - have to consider how capital is handled - are IT-related
projects all in IT or are many in other department budgets, what $ amount
is considered Capital >$500, >$1000, >$5000 (every organization is different)
EMR score
customer satisfaction expectations/requirements

I could go on...

The point is, without in-depth analysis, one can not speculate if an
organization is overstaffed or understaffed or what the right level of staffing is.
I have not seen a tool in the industry that comes close to doing that yet. HIMSS is getting
closer. (I also haven't seen a lazy or underworked or incompetent IT person in a
progressive organization last any amount of time, there is no way the work group could
tolerate it). The possibilities for IT process improvement in the organization and
implementations are almost limitless. I think it is a question of how progressive an
organization wants to be and what staffing levels they are comfortable with. Could we
staff with less people? Yes, but we would have to back down on services and
implementations. Could we use more people? Yes, give me 20 more, I could keep them all
busier than they'd like and no one would be twiddling their thumbs. :-)

Marjorie Tell
Vice President - Information Technology
Riverview Hospital Association
715-424-8574


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Tue Mar 17, 2009 11:18 pm From: Gary Hall <GHall@epm

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[Emond, Michelle]

Gary,
I shared some of the posted replies to your quest with out IT Director
and he shared the following formula with me.

We have 900 PCs which typically needs 1.5 days each maintenance in a
year 900x1.5=1350
We have 250 Printers which need 3 days maintenance each year 250x3=750

Take those 1350+750=2100 divide that by the working days in a year 260 =
8.1 FTE

This is not supporting anything other than those devices. We still have
the network, wireless, switches etc..... We have on our technical team 6
full time tech, 2 on contract and one help desk person.

We also have 7 other members in IT doing a mix of applications
research/consulting /building/support/report writing/ interface work and
so on etc..

I know you needed this prior to now, but thought it may be of interest.

Michelle Emond

Pt. Info. Applications Consultant

Information Services

Quinte Health Care

Belleville General

________________________________

From: meditech-...@mtusers.com
[mailto:meditech-...@mtusers.com] On Behalf Of Gary Hall
Sent: Thursday, March 12, 2009 2:24 PM
To: medit...@MTusers.com
Subject: [MEDITECH-L] How Many IT Staff Members at Small Hospitals?

Not sure this got through the other night...

OK, L, statistics time to help me justify staff.

We are a rural critical-access hospital in the high mountains in
Colorado. 25 inpatient beds, a 60-bed nursing home, seven-physician
clinic part of the hospital that uses Allscripts EHR, and we have
Meditech Magic 5.61 ADM, ABS, MRI, B/AR, AP, EPS, PCI, NUR, LAB, RAD,
GL, MM, ARM, OE, PP, SCH, almost PHA, all the usual suspects (MIS, OPS,
HIS, NPR, NMI), 10 interfaces and more coming, 230 PCs, laptops, &
tablets, 330 computer users, and so on.

We handle that with two IT analysts (doing all the Meditech & Allscripts
software support and tons of other related items), two network/hardware
guys, and me (clinical analyst background, doing a lot of that stuff
still, including the interface work).

Compared to other with reasonably similar configurations, are we (1)
overstaffed, (2) understaffed, (3) woefully understaffed, (4) about
right?

Even if you're not the same size, it'd be interesting to hear your
stats.

If you think we're overstaffed, you'll have to explain to me why I'm

writing this at nearly midnight on a Tuesday night... :-)

Gary Hall

Director of Information Technology

Estes Park Medical Center

970-577-4443 (office)

970-744-9052 (cell)

970-577-4355 (fax)

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