FOCUS: Process Improvement/Project Management

During a three-year period, Christiana Care has observed significant and sustained improvements in technology-enabled project outcomes. Just in the patient throughput area, Christiana Care has seen an 11 percent reduction in length of stay in the emergency department (ED), a 23 percent reduction in patients leaving ED without treatment and a 28 percent reduction in bed-clean turnaround time, all while accommodating patient volume increases of 7 percent.This performance is directly related to a broader view of implementation embraced by the organization. By looking at more than just traditional project management, Christiana Care has shifted their implementation paradigm, focusing on benefits planning, user adoption, value realization and goal delivery within the portfolio. This has been a result of a journey that has included a subtle but deliberate introduction of the new implementation thinking, primarily marked by an experience-driven approach of demonstrating the benefits of good implementation practices. Christiana Care has created the environment and process to get the greatest value for its IT-related investments and to show “what right looks like.”