On Call/Off-Hours Coverage

rninformatics, DNP, RN · Oct 29, 2008

Taking call is not required in my current role:yeah:

Although that does not mean its not in other Informaticist roles.

If a caller is dialing my extension and its during off hours they are instructed that if their issue is urgent to contact "so and so" (one of these choices is the Help Desk).......... and for non urgent issues they can leave me a voice message. My current role does not involve manning the Help Desk although I have in past roles.

An example of a Clinical Informatics vs an Information Systems issue might be -

When I practiced as a consultant I was in the process of implementing a new LIS (Lab Information System) for an organization. During testing I noticed that any clinician who accessed the patients EMR could see that an HIV test had been ordered and performed on the "Test" patient. View access only allowed you to see that the test had been ordered and performed but not the specific test results. I (and the lab staff and other's in leadership ) found this to be a problem! The LIS vendor did not. As far as the vendor was concerned the system was "working as designed" never mind that this kind of highly confidential and sensitive information should not have been viewable by all - even if they were clinical staff. I was eventually able to work with the organization and the vendor to increase the security on certain tests so that viewing of the ordering of the test would be limited to a smaller designated group of clinicians. VS an Information System issue that can be anything from a user who forgot his/her password to ADT (admission/discharge/tranfer) data isnt crossing the interface.

Calls to our Help Desk are triaged according to specific issue, clinical or business applications, hardware/pc support, network, telecommunications issues, etc. Issues are then further classified as critical, essential or important - with the appropriate algorithm of support followed.

I have held roles of:Project Manager, Clinical Analyst and Clinical Applications Specialist that required I take call. In all of these previous roles the organization did have a Help Desk - some organizations were larger and had fully staffed functioning 24/7 Help Desks others were smaller with limited Help Desk hours but with staff that could be called in or proxy in as needed. I've never worked for an organization that did not have an "Information Systems Department" or an IT dept.

As Informaticists, are you required to be on-call during off-hours?
If so, do you have a Help Desk and and Information Systems Department?
What kinds of calls go to Informatics versus Information Systems and who decides where the calls go?
If you do not take call on off-hours, does your Information Systems Department fill-in those hours for you?
Thanks!
geeknurse

rninformatics, DNP, RN · Nov 3, 2008

Excellent article related to increasing the use of the Help Desk

Help Desk Open Days

By:Jeff Drey of TechRepublic

November 3rd

One thought I was turning over in my head was an idea for Help Desk open days.

It would be a way to get people to walk into the office and meet the people who work there. I would make up a few leaflets, laminate a few cards which listed the opening hours, contact details and hold question and answer sessions, so that the help desk could keep abreast of the issues that affect the users directly.

To me it is very important to not only keep track of what is going on in the IT department but also in the general user community, if there is an influx of new people in the company we need to make sure that all the preparatory work is done, that they have logins, equipment and that the necessary places are booked on training courses. If you have the help desk as part of the company and not some remote voice on the end of the phone means that people will feel easier about coming forward and asking for things.

It is also harder for them to give you a hard time if they know you as a person.

Complete article can be found at:

http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/helpdesk/?p=309