Sustainability, Partnership, and Teamwork in Health IT Implementation

elationships involved a large patient care delivery organization with negotiating clout and/or internal
health IT experience acting as the link to the vendor.
Other Cross-Organization Partnerships
Of the partnerships that were built or enhanced as a result of the planning and implementation grant
opportunities (65 of them), nearly all continued to work together in part or in whole after the end
of the grant period on health improvement projects (with two exceptions). Partnerships ranged in
size and composition, but more than half the grant projects included one or more private physician
practices (a majority of which had fewer than five physicians), hospitals (a majority were Critical
Access Hospitals or small rural hospitals), a university, and a health IT vendor. Grantees with more
complex and larger projects—those with more than one type of patient care delivery organization
and/or involving more than 10 organizations of any type—were as likely to continue their
partnerships with full versus partial participation as their smaller or counterparts or those including
only one type of patient care delivery organization.
Including an organization whose primary mission is not care delivery appears advisable: partnerships
involving organizations such as professional associations, health IT vendors, and/or a consultant
were significantly more likely to continue with full participation than partnerships without these
organizations involved. Implementation projects with a “major rural” focus were also more likely to
report all partners continuing to work together after the grant, compared with other grantees.
Grantee interviews suggested several features of successful health IT partnerships: a shared view
among partners that health IT is an enabler to a common goal, trust among partners, and, when
relatively small organizations with constrained resources are included, also including a larger, wellresourced
partner (see box).
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Executive Summary