by Jeff McKune

In my former life in IT, I worked on a number of biotech research projects. The company organized resources around the different portions of their biotech pipeline. For each segment of the pipeline, a user steering committee was responsible for overseeing the systems and projects that affected that segment.

These committees were comprised of key stakeholders of systems at different geographical locations, project managers, and IT representatives. Even though these were IT systems, the end users had ownership, and it showed in the ratio of users to IT staff on the committees - usually three to one.

The steering committee responsibilities were fairly comprehensive. They recommended changes to systems based on their changing business needs. They reviewed and approved all changes, including those proposed by IT subgroups such as the database team or the networking team. In short, to a great extent they controlled their own destiny with regards to their operational systems.

When I joined PCRMC early in 2006, I was pleased to see the hospital beginning to use this same structure. A "user" steering committee had been organized around the management of the complexities of the revenue cycle. The committee is comprised of several department directors, as well as representatives from coding, finance, and compliance. Having the stakeholders all in one room at one time smoothes the coordination and discussion around issues that impact each of them, and it has led to significant improvements in revenue cycle efficiency.

In what other areas could steering committees be deployed in hospitals? Would it make sense to have an admissions steering committee that managed that portion of the hospital "pipeline"? In this case, the "users" would be patients - more specifically, non-hospital representatives of our patient community. What about a nursing care steering committee, or a discharge management steering committee, each with a higher ratio of patient representatives than hospital staff? Without a doubt we would gain new insights from those we serve, and the effort would bring more meaning to patient-centric care.

Perhaps your hospital is already using steering committees in this way. If so, please share your experiences with the rest of us.