Eliminating the upgrade headache

Far too often, system upgrades can set organizations back for weeks or even months. And it frequently means a game of catch-up for all parties involved. All the clinicians, front-office staff, everyone. This issue feels unavoidable; updates are needed, systems are slowing down with time and there’s no other choice than to just power through it. Bugs and lags and all, right?

Hendrick took a different route when upgrading its Sunrise EHR, instead relying on a service that eliminated this common headache. One that ensured the organization’s users didn’t have to compromise work hours to sift through IT tickets and use their time inefficiently. Hendrick leadership chose to partner with Altera’s Testing Center of Excellence (TCoE), an offering from our Managed Services team, for their latest system upgrade—headache-free and with the tools and resources they needed right away.

An upgrade in action. Putting testing to work.

Hendrick Health and Altera were able to scale a significant challenge of upgrading Hendrick’s PR (patch release) from 30 to 33. Ruth Hutchins RN BSN-C, Manager, Clinical Informatics at Hendrick, said, “Hendrick utilized TCoE for PR 33 implementation. This service was very beneficial to our preparation for this installation. PR 33 had some significant changes that we most likely would not have been able to completely test and validate well. Using TCoE gave us that additional manpower to fully review these potential issues.”

The TCoE team also used the release notes to write test scripts for the enhancements and resolved issues in the release, ensuring thorough testing and validation of the changes. The TCoE team then used the test scripts to thoroughly execute all of the applicable test cases in the client's test environment, ensuring comprehensive validation before the go-live. The TCoE team was able to proactively identify and remediate 15 issues with four go-live “blockers” being identified and fixed pre-go-live. Since the implementation, Hendrick has seen a 45% reduction in post-go-live issues within the support period. Using Altera’s TCoE made it possible for Hendrick to smoothly upgrade and with the resources ahead of time to avoid issues after the systems are up and running.

“Overall, I appreciate the additional ‘eyes on the system’ benefit that TCoE provided to our team. We experienced a marked reduction in post-go-live issues primarily due to the utilization of the TCoE team.”

Ruth Hutchins RN BSN-C
Manager, Clinical Informatics

Making downtime count

The usual dreaded downtime proved to be rewarding for Hendrick. Downtime only spanned the expected window and no significant issues prevented the go-live from happening on time, as expected. This improved downtime experience came with a clear understanding of resolved issues for the Hendrick team. In fact, the TCOE team went over each item in the PR and helped to identify which items were applicable to Hendrick and went over the impact for each change. “TCoE was flexible in meeting our team's needs and the Altera team set up daily meetings, allowing us to maintain a good cadence for testing, validation and communication,” Hutchins said. “We used this time to identify potential workarounds and necessary configuration changes. The TCoE team was engaged, knowledgeable and competent, and we appreciated their reporting of issues encountered by other Altera clients. They worked well with our team.”

Innovative solutions for greater outcomes, with the team to accomplish it

During an upgrade, helpful and efficient tools are what healthcare organizations need to provide next-level care. One other benefit the TCoE service provides users is a guide regarding the upgrade’s enhancements and where to find each within the system. This can be especially helpful with a major upgrade, ensuring everyone has all the necessary information about new features. “Overall, I appreciate the additional ‘eyes on the system’ benefit that TCoE provided to our team. We experienced a marked reduction in post-go-live issues primarily due to the utilization of the TCoE team,” Hutchins said.

At Altera, we are ready for the journey ahead, from upgrades to daily maintenance and beyond.