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Applications Specialist/Super User

General Discussion

Last Post by bgeib 7 years ago

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sierrawintersmith

(@sierrawintersmith)

Posts: 8

Eminent Member

Topic starter

Hey guys! I hope everyone had fun at CHUG 2017! I know I sure did.

I am reaching out for advice from all you Applications Specialist/Super Users out there.
Our clinic recently created my position as the Applications Specialist and until this point the position never existed so we are slowly building as we go.

We are such a small clinic and we only have two IT techs and myself. My question is in regards to other specialists and their relationship with the IT department.

As the application specialist are you
-- responsible for all upgrades and patches or does the IT department handle it?
-- responsible for troubleshooting all CPS errors and kick outs?
-- responsible for training new staff on CPS and other programs used by your company?
-- responsible for building forms and improving in-program workflows?
-- responsible for server maintenance?

Thank you for your responses and additionally I appreciate any resources you'd be willing to share with a new Applications Specialist.

Posted : October 31, 2017 11:44 am

Anonymous

(@Anonymous)

Posts: 0

New Member Guest

Well
I do all of that as well as Blade server hardware maintenance and upgrades
VMware exsi/Vcenter Patching and upgrades
Citrix server installations, deployments, Patching and upgrades.

As well as the Database and Most of the Network, but we are mostly Cisco which is pretty straight forward.

but to be franc, our team is very small although we have close to 60 physicians and 250 staff. We are a team of 3.

But a specialist should not be handling Patches and/or upgrades. That should be part of the IT department as you normally need to perform backups and pre check and schedule downtime for the upgrades and patches which a specialist would not be able to do unless he have a DBA or someone with knowledge of database and have Enough Authority to schedule full system downtime.

Posted : October 31, 2017 11:58 am

SLHV

(@slhv)

Posts: 478

Honorable Member

A good question.

Generally, our IT (which includes me) handles anything that falls outside the application directly. That covers the infrastructure and server maintenance. Building/maintaining forms falls under our purview as well mostly because it can be complex, easy to break, and often requires privileges that permit too much access for an untrained/inexperienced form editor.

We don't have an "application specialist." We have a role that we call a "clinical IT liasion" currently held by a an RN with extensive clinical and CPS experience. The clinical liaison is our go-to when we're administering CPS and any clinical content or workflow is involved. If something we're doing in CPS may directly involve patient care the clinical IT liaison is typically involved. This role also can initiate administrative changes that involve any clinical aspects or workflow aspects.

An interesting question on CPS errors/crashes--no one does anything most of the time, as it is standard operating procedure for all users. If it becomes excessive or unusable, then the report comes to IT. Usually it's just a hung CPS process in a terminal session for the user.

-dp

Posted : November 1, 2017 4:02 am

joeg1962

(@joeg1962)

Posts: 843

Noble Member

This is a business decision for you. I have been in both scenarios:

(a) GE concentration, and part of IT department. Inside knowledge and involvement with the technology, to make sure impacts to GE software are addressed. However, this comes at a cost - time and effort devoted on IT things.

(b) GE concentration, and integrated into the clinical side. More involvement with clinicians to understand needs, and time to develop custom forms, reports, and processes/systems to improve the clinical and operational quality of the practice.

If the resource does not HAVE TO be part of IT, I would recommend the individual be able to concentrate on GE and the clinic. With the changing nature of healthcare, there are plenty of things to keep a person busy helping to make the software a useful part of operations and requirements.

Your five items:

1) IT

2) as a first responder, then to IT

3) perhaps, might also be a clinician in the role

4) YES

5) NO

I would be happy to talk more, if you desire.

Joe Gillis

Posted : November 1, 2017 5:09 am

bgeib

(@bgeib)

Posts: 14

Eminent Member

I think you see the trend here from the answers.

1,2 and 5 should be distinct from 3 and 4.

They are very different thought processes involved and
specialized training for each group.

However if you were to do all those tasks successfully until you grow larger
and can separate those jobs, you certainly will have very good training for
an Information Systems Director/Manager 🙂 but doing all of them could possibly be
extremely time consuming (say goodbye to nights and weekends)
as the demands keep increasing.

Typically you would have:

- IT resource that handles devices, and access issues - Basic help desk.

- IT Resource that handles Networks and Systems including upgrades/patches.
This could include an integration (interfaces) function or as a separate job.

- May not be applicable to you now but another position that handles
programming, database administration.

- Resource that handles Application issues and forms. Tests upgrades.

- Another position is someone that works on reports using Crystal or SQL/Oracle
though initially that position could be part of one of the two above.

- Someone that handles training and documentation.

- A clinical person should be part of the team doing one or parts of some
of the functions above or closely working with someone who does the above functions.

Posted : November 3, 2017 5:16 am

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