By Wilmer Castro
The advancement of technology has created exciting new opportunities for the healthcare industry, and now, more than ever, organizations are seeking to adopt innovative solutions that enable connectivity and streamline clinical workflow. Evidence of this trend can be seen in a 2018 poll by Ernst and Young, which surveyed 195 executives and 152 physicians to understand their perceptions of digital technologies in healthcare. An overwhelming 91 percent of respondents reported they already have or will undergo a digital adoption initiative within the next year.
While it’s clear healthcare organizations are eager to embrace new technologies, the transition to these platforms requires a formal digital adoption program that identifies the specific needs of healthcare staff. Without a human-centric adoption approach in place, the change could be unsuccessful and unprofitable.
Nearly every organization experiences difficulties with adoption, regardless of industry. These issues can range from lack of employee engagement, lack of relevant training and general low awareness due to poor communication from leadership. A digital adoption strategy for this particular audience must consider a few unique factors in order for it to be successful.
Getting Started
Gathering functional representation from across the organization in a virtual or in-person session to discuss business goals for the new technology and understanding how each functional group might be impacted by the new technology is key. Adoption and Change Management firms could help guide these discussions and educate the executives on the critical role they play during a technology migration.
Addressing Varying Shifts
With any adoption initiative, employees will go at their own pace. Specific to healthcare, a large number of workers hold different shifts each week and must complete trainings during limited and varying downtime. In these instances, management should rely on Adoption Measurement Plans when designing a digital adoption plan. An Adoption Measurement Plan should be established early on to identify how quickly employees are up-and-running on the new technology, how many employees are demonstrating “buy-in” through use, and how well individuals are performing compared to the desired business objectives.
Data provided in these reports allows leadership to pivot and adjust learning plans throughout the course of the technology migration. For example, if consumption data shows night shift nurses are accessing training portals in the early morning hours after they clock out, managers can customize a plan that provides training options or webinars during those times using curriculum that is specific to the needs of the night staff.
What is in it for me?
After leadership collectively shared the unique factors impacting their perspective group of healthcare workers, they must pinpoint the “what’s in it for me” value proposition. In this industry, that value proposition is the efficiency technology provides to help address those unique characteristics. Understanding this audience suffers from the issues mentioned above, a successful adoption strategy is one that clearly illustrates the “what’s in it for me” — which is improved efficiencies, greater collaboration and increased flexibility from the proper usage of new software.
Painting a picture of successful adoption
Finally, it’s critical for employees to be able to understand how these technologies will play into their day-to-day moving forward. Leadership must paint a picture of the future state of an organization so that the end-users can visualize how their current frustrations will be addressed through the implementation of the new technologies.
At its core, facilitating a digital adoption is about connecting employees to the tech and providing the means to understand how it will help them. Healthcare practitioners must not only understand that a change is underway, but also that the change is for the better.
Wilmer Castro is the Learning and Development Director for Vitalyst. In his role, Wilmer is responsible for enhancing Vitalyst’s learning solutions with customized modules and curriculums that are tailored to each client’s unique learning trajectory, needs and goals.
The Editorial Team at Healthcare Business Today is made up of skilled healthcare writers and experts, led by our managing editor, Daniel Casciato, who has over 25 years of experience in healthcare writing. Since 1998, we have produced compelling and informative content for numerous publications, establishing ourselves as a trusted resource for health and wellness information. We offer readers access to fresh health, medicine, science, and technology developments and the latest in patient news, emphasizing how these developments affect our lives.
