Welcome back to our blog series on leading change for digital health modernisation. In our previous blogs, we have explored proven strategies for navigating this complex transformation journey. If you haven't had a chance to read them, you can check them out here:
How to Lead Change for Digital Health Modernisation: 6 Proven Strategies
Technology Assessment: What It Is and Why You Need It
How to Conduct an Effective Infrastructure Assessment for Digital Health Modernisation
In this fourth blog, we focus on the critical role of IT support processes and data analysis in shaping the future of your digital health initiatives.
The Importance of Robust IT Support and Data Analysis
In the fast-paced world of healthcare, technology plays a vital role in ensuring clinicians can provide patients with the highest-quality care. However, having state-of-the-art digital health tools is only half the battle.
The real value of healthcare technologies today is realised when the technology just works for clinicians, almost seamlessly with minimal disruption and maximum efficiency.
How can you achieve health IT operations like this? Examine your IT support data for trends and opportunities for continual improvement. Let's dive into the process.
Uncovering Common Problems with Reporting and Metrics
Several approaches can get you started to improve IT support and the first is to analyse commonly reported IT issues.
- Have they gone unaddressed?
- Are they inaccurately documented?
- Are support issues being misrouted?
If you answered "yes", patient care and clinician satisfaction are likely feeling the consequences of faltering IT support.
What if there were metrics available to help with meaningful insights and IT or process improvements that could make a difference?
- Perform data analysis on health IT support metrics. To address these challenges, developing a comprehensive, disciplined approach to data collection and analysis is essential. By ensuring that healthcare IT support issues are accurately documented and reported, organisations can gain valuable insights into the root causes of problems, leading to more effective use and implementation. For instance, metrics might reveal recurring issues with a printer, user access or specific workflows, prompting a deeper investigation and targeted user training.
>> Consider how costly it can be when a provider or clinical team member calls multiple times for an IT issue to be resolved.
>> Consider how frustration can build for patients waiting for discharge because of an IT issue.
Operational and Technical Challenges: Where to Focus for Maximum ROI
- Make time for more training and more effective use of health IT. Data analysis can uncover operational and technical challenges that deliver the most significant return on investment (ROI) when addressed. For example, an analysis might show that a substantial portion of IT support requests are related to user errors with new technology. In this case, additional training and better onboarding processes could drastically reduce the number of support calls, freeing up IT resources and improving overall efficiency.
Furthermore, investing in advanced analytics can help healthcare organisations move from a reactive to a proactive support model. By predicting potential IT issues, organisations can prevent downtime, ensuring clinicians can focus on patient care without interruptions.
Unlocking Opportunities with Shared Services and Managed Services
- Start collaborating and leveraging IT support resources to scale services. As healthcare organisations grow and evolve, the complexity of managing IT support increases. This is where the concept of shared services can provide significant benefits.
Shared services allow organisations to consolidate IT support across multiple departments or locations, leading to cost savings and consistent service levels. For example, a shared service model might centralise IT support for multiple hospitals within a healthcare network, removing duplication and improving efficiency.
>> Health IT support can demand 24x7x365 availability, and staffing resources for after-hours and weekends is no small feat. Consider the work-life balance your IT team could enjoy with a partnership model for managed IT services.
Transitioning to a managed services model can extend these benefits even further. By outsourcing IT support to a trusted partner like CereCore International, healthcare organisations can ensure 24/7 support coverage, access to specialised expertise, and the ability to scale IT services as needed.
How CereCore International Can Help You
Our CereCore International consultants bring extensive healthcare operations experience working alongside NHS Trusts and other healthcare organisations. Because we have worked with providers in hospitals, we bring a deeper level of understanding to IT support metric analysis.
When you pair our hospital operations background with our deep EPR solutions expertise, you achieve a level of IT support that can help your organisation achieve more effective use of your digital health technology. Our focus on continual improvement and high-quality IT support make us an ideal partner who can help assess your IT support, perform data analysis, and help you work toward improvement.
Key Takeaways
Enhancing IT support processes and data analysis is crucial for successful digital health modernisation. To drive this transformation effectively, healthcare organisations should focus on the following critical steps:
- Identify common challenges to optimise technology solutions.
- Focus on high-ROI opportunities.
- Consider shared and managed services to maximise value from technology investments.
Stay tuned for our next blog, where we will delve into the benefits of standardisation in digital health.
Contact us today to learn more about how CereCore International can support your digital health modernisation efforts.
