1. Content Change Control & Content Management Strategies
Michael L Shew
February 9, 2011

2. Change Control

3. Why are we here? Define Change Control in practical terms
Demonstrate the purpose
Suggest some tools and strategies

4. What is “Change Control”
Project Managers may define it as “The processes and procedures to manage changes being made to a product, process, schedule, or budget including the submission, analysis, decision making, approval, implementation and post implementation of the change. Change control is typically an element of a project quality plan. Uncontrolled changes are one of the most common causes of delay and failure in projects.

5. What is “Change Control”
Change control within Quality Management Systems (QMS) and Information Technology (IT) systems is a formal process used to ensure that changes to a product or system are introduced in a controlled and coordinated manner. It
reduces the possibility that unnecessary changes will be introduced to a system without forethought, introducing faults into the system or undoing changes made by other users of software. The goals of a change control procedure usually include minimal disruption to services, reduction in back-out activities, and cost-effective utilization of resources involved in implementing change.

6. June 2009 – MediServe Begins Regulated Versioned releases of content.
Lessons learned before Change Management
Resource Drain
Poor Quality
Little knowledge of downstream impact - (content change breaking a report)
Minimizing repeated configuration (building the same thing over and over in multiple client environments)
Collection Content “brief history”
2. Translates to wasted FTE’s

7. How does this impact MediLinks
Essentially anywhere observations and calc equations are used in MediLinks. Changes may have downstream and upstream consequences.
Examples
Reports
Flowsheets such as the IPV (MediLinks Collection Content)
IRF-PAI
Future Versions of Collection Content
1. Future versions of Collection Content each will have instructions on how to build these items into “Your” version – there is no way to predict various changes a client will make, so they are based on the versions “out of the box” that were delivered.
2. If you as a client do not make careful notations on what was changed in your environment, the effort to make updates is greatly increased as are potential downstream “breakages”.

8. Clinical Consultant Tools
Google Docs (Content Workbook)
Content View (excel spreadsheet with pivot tables)
Viz Tool - Content
Design Matrix - Content
Visio/Flowcharting Software - Workflow
1. If ASP Client – easy to get this, if On Premise – more steps, but can get – need to be able to access MediLinks Server (where tables reside) from Excel to produce this.
2. See “Search Tool” document for detailed explanation.

9. Content/Branch Design Matrix

10. Content Views Spreadsheet

11. Visio

12. Other Tools and Ideas Microsoft Sharepoint
Excel Spreadsheet on shared drive
Content Review Board
Participant Ideas??

13. Methodologies
Suggest IRB model – that changes be submitted to a Content Review Team/Board, where they are evaluated by the board for System Impact, as well as Best Practice. Should consist of key stakeholders in use of MediLinks (OT/PT/SLP etc) – this can facilitate buy in from all “sides”
Check with your institution for “standards” or policies on change control – start there!!
1. Institutional Review Board – essentially a research approval process and board at higher education institutions to ensure safety and ethics as well as usefulness of potential research projects.
2. A “pause” to ask who, what, when, where, and WHY!!!

14. Why make the effort Efficiency Risk – Revenue - Compliance
Enhanced productivity
Shorten the gap with Content Release Notes
Staff Turnover
Well documented changes can shorten the amount of effort for a Client to update content.
2. Release notes contain detailed changes (can see in Client Portal) of MediServe Standard Collection Content (branch/calc/observation changes) –typically added to satisfy new regulatory requirements or improved/new MediLinks functionality.
3. Examples CMS 2010 Regulations for IRF’s, Grids in MediLinks SP3, Pre-Admission+

15. Recap Define Change Control in practical terms Demonstrate the purpose
Suggest some tools and strategies
Structured documented process for changes to an environment
Reduce redundancy, errors and problems with downstream systems