Last week I had to add a few required fields to the inpatient files our client sends to Press Ganey. The data owners asked how long it would take to complete the file enhancements. That’s a fair question. With so many variables, it can be challenging to estimate a timeframe. To do so, I came up with the following checklist to help anticipate how many hours this task would need. By breaking the entire task into steps, and evaluating how long each step takes to complete, an effort estimate can be determined.
- Identify the fields you will add to the file. Refer to the survey vendor documentation to find out what fields Press Ganey needs and the data types they are expecting. Then, identify the data sources needed to extract those fields.
- Use a development area with near-production data to run QA. Load your test area with near-production data. Then, identify any query errors you may encounter with the production data.
- Validate the data and reconfirm with the client. Make sure to check the data fields against the data source. If the file looks good, then it may be easier for the client to validate with you.
- Test in a production data area without sending the data to Press Ganey. Before retiring from the current process, it’s a good idea to test the new process. Do this on the production servers and databases that your current process runs on. Do not call the process to send the files to Press Ganey!
- Retire the current process and deploy the new one. Once your process passes testing, retire the current process and schedule the new process.
- Finally, check if the process ran correctly. On the day that the Press Ganey files are created, make sure to check your process to ensure it executed properly.
