Anticlue

Work with your vendors for testing

Vendor relationships make or break healthcare institutions. Its been my experience that Healthcare IT organizations generally don't have enough resources to go all out in testing. It would be great to test every single application for all weak points and to be able to address them. But the simple fact is that a single healthcare institution doesn't have the resources available to test every appliction for every breaking point. (Unless of course, they purchase an it goverance suite with testing software) So what can one do?

Well, I propose a better working relationship with your vendor of choice. If you have a good working relationship, try to find out the types of testing and test cases that the vendor placed the application through before forwarding it onto you. The Ideal is to get those test results, and then add them in with your testing scenarios for interoperability testing. If you don't get some of the same result, figure out why there is a difference in the configuration. One doesn't need to recreate the entire wheel, if your vendor has a proven track record, then have some faith. If your vendor doesn't have a proven track record, consider getting one who does. Poor vendors are an expense that any healthcare organization cannot afford.

Also have your vendor partake in your change management process, perhaps even fill out a change form. Be sure to include in the change form, test cases and outcomes, (ideally both yours and the vendors), the dependencies, the order to move a change live, what the risk points are, and at least two strategies for recovery at each risk point.