Research Process Improvement in Academic and Healthcare Settings

1
Research Process Improvement in Academic and
Healthcare Settings
Stephanie Wasserman Director Office of Sponsored
Programs
Andrew Chase Director Research Operations
Improvement
2
Introduction

• This presentation will
• Provide real life examples from two organizations
  engaged in change management
• Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
• Partners Healthcare
• Give an overview of some approaches to manage
  change, and share lessons learned
• Focus will be on people, and will include
  systems, business processes, and resources

3
Change Agents

• Internal Commitment to Improve and do things
  better
• (Small Scale Projects/Total Quality Management)
• Compliance with changing regulations
• (Adapt and Revise Processes)
• Staff Turnover
• Large Scale Special Projects
• (IT solutions to better manage operations)
• Operations Overhaul
• (Revolt by Investigators/financial
  complications/compliance challenges)
• All Organizations must manage change and have the
  support of senior leadership to make it happen.

4
People /Process/Systems

• All successful change operations must address the
  interdependency of People /Process/Systems
• Change in one area must be balanced with
  additional attention in the other areas

• Acceptance and success determined by
• Preparation process
• Dissemination of timelines
• Organized implementation

Communication is key
5
During any change never lose focus on core
operations
Special Projects
IT
CORE
AVOID THIS SITUATION

• Change projects can distract, and drain resources
  
• Regardless of potential benefits nothing is more
  important than the Core operations

Special Projects
IT
CORE
6
Approach

• Identify Participants
• Knowledge experts/visionaries/political
• Size and structure depends on the change being
  undertaken
• Create advisory Committee
• Clearly define role and level of authority of the
  committee
• Define scope of project and measures for success
• Committee is there for oversight but also to
  provide valuable communication back to the
  research community
• Committee is also there to identify any
  downstream activities that will be affected by
  project and conversely assist with handling any
  upstream dependencies

7
Approach continued

• Task force Team
• Include (Pre-Award/Research Finance/Departments/IT
  /Other administrative units)
• Identify leader and roles and responsibilities
  divided between the members
• Create Business Plan with timeline, milestones
  and deliverables
• Absentee participation must be addressed have
  clear expectations
• The goal is to improve your organization to
  better meet the needs of the research community
  not to placate individuals
• Communication between task force team and
  business owners
• Team should report regularly to business owners
  for feedback, to resolve specific issues and
  identify the need for expansion of scope or
  creation of additional task force teams
• Make sure business owners are comfortable with
  the direction
• Business owners can prioritize or reallocate
  resources to assist the task force
• Recognize those involved upon completion of
  the project

8
Information Technology Projects

• Any IT system business enhancement, no matter how
  small, disrupts operations before tangible
  benefits are realized.
• Be clear and specific about what a new system can
  do and clearly communicate what is outside of
  scope. Do not create unrealistic expectations
• Project Management is critical and keep all
  owners appraised of project milestones and
  progress
• Make sure that business owners are involved in
  the decision making. May require an arbitrator to
  translate between system requirements and
  business process to identify the most efficient
  solution
• Examples from BI include Electronic Grant
  Submission system, new s2s development release,
  TOPAZ animal management system.

9
Human Element Conundrum

• Achilles Heel of change is staff

Driver of change is staff

• Highlights the need for
• strong leadership
• efficient two-way communication
• comprehensive training and transparent
  performance management.
• Clear Roles and Responsibilities.

Staff are adversely affected by change

• Staff are the greatest benefactors of change

10
Monitoring and follow-up

• How to stay on top of process improvements with
  out derailing the initiative?
• Effort Reporting system upgrades
• Regular leadership meetings to review and make
  modifications as needed
• Feedback from the research community
• Consistency in approach
• Listening to industry concerns and acting
  accordingly (systems, process, etc.)
• Metrics

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Metrics Are Critical

• Monthly Dashboards reviewed by Research
  Operations Committee
• Submission summary / Award set-ups / Cost
  transfers/ Deficits/ FSRs / Effort Reporting
• Identify the institutional benchmark for
  activities across the lifecycle take into
  account cyclical nature of certain activities
• Continually question the benchmark and efforts to
  create greater efficiencies.
• Dashboards translate into productivity reports
• Allows institution to determine staffing levels
• Identifies potential / necessary system upgrades
• Measures efficiency (processing times)
• Highlights areas for process improvement and
  dependencies between groups (PI-Pre-Post-Dept-Fina
  nce)

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The Biggest Obstacle We Face

• Staffing
• Retention
• Hiring
• Balancing talent, experience, and service
  orientation
• Sourcing and sharing candidates in the Boston
  market
• Training
• The better the training and retention the more
  flexibility an organization has in hiring

13
Retaining Talent

• Provide Opportunities
• Career ladder advancement,
• E.g. Create RA Supervisor role to obtain manager
  experience, to be considered as stepping stone to
  Team Director position
• Special project work (Change management
  opportunities)
• Mentoring Opportunities
• Promote Training activities (as a participant and
  a Trainer)
• Reward good behavior (budget for this!!!)
• Market (salary) adjustments.
• Spot bonus program.
• Lunch . . .
• New Training Specialist role dedicated to
  onboarding process for RAs and PIs

14
Retention Planning Human Metrics

• Evaluate staff to create the best environment to
  allow employees to succeed
• Be aware of employee combinations within teams
• Provide visionaries with opportunities to
  demonstrate ability
• Dont overwhelm continuity players, especially
  with change management

Green Opportunity Player Yellow Continuity
Player Red Needs additional guidance White New
Hire
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Hiring

• Research Administration Pipeline Program
• Sourcing internal medical center employees
  through competitive selection process who want
  career change/growth opportunity
• Involves 8 weekly sessions covering fundamentals
  of grants management
• NIH session at end of program
• 2 RA pipeline groups completed to date resulting
  in 7 new research administrator hires
• RA Pipeline Program also open to new external RAs
  to audit sessions
• Dedicated research recruiter

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New Hires - On boarding

• On boarding Process
• Invest time in new hires
• Provide mentoring and goals structure
• Orientation and Reference Manual
• Familiarizes new hires with Partners and its
  entities
• Gives them background on Research Management
  processes
• Outlines their role and responsibilities
• New Hire Buddy/Mentor Program
• Provides new employees with an experienced and
  willing mentor
• Improves teamwork abilities of both the buddies
  and new employees
• Gives new employees an outlet to discuss problems
  with someone other than their manager
• Managers On boarding Kit

17
Training

• Every organization needs a structured (and
  ideally comprehensive) training program available
  for the organizations entire research community
• Fundamentals
• Job Specific (Procedural such as how to do an
  FSR)
• Advanced Topics
• Activity Specific (eSubmission, cost sharing,
  etc)
• Resources (time and ) are always an issue with
  training
• Decide what is most economical to outsource
• NCURA workshops / Online trainings
• Use Brown Bag sessions
• Incorporate performance management goals with
  involvement in training encourage attendance
  and leading training activity

18
Questions

• Thank you for your time and attention