While technology is often the catalyst for change, we need to recognize that it is only one of the many tools and influences built into the human aspect of delivering healthcare.
- The healthcare sector is not moving fast enough to embrace cloud computing, AI, big data, and new technologies and processes to improve outcomes for patients and make clinicians more productive
- Dr. Edgar Chavez (CEO of Universal Community Health Center in Los Angeles) says, “one of the biggest challenges we’ve had is to be patient with our patients and become educators as to the benefits of telehealth”
- Larger hospitals are trying to reduce the length of stay in hospitals by conducting multi-specialty rounding, using technology with an entire care team to better coordinate a care plan to get patients better, faster
Welcome to the Post-COVID World
When Bob Dylan wrote his classic ballad in 1964, many dubbed it the ultimate protest song but many say it’s not a call to “rise up” as much as a cry to “wake-up.” As writer Tony Atwood once wrote, “you don’t have to rise up and overthrow the evil empire, but rather just admit that the world has changed irrevocably.”
The same can be said in healthcare today as we look ahead to the light at the end of the pandemic tunnel.
Imagine if you will, the sight of your boss walking down the hall, bursting into your office and saying, “You know that initiative you’ve been harping to me about for two years? Well, you’ve got the green light. Make it happen by next week!” Welcome to the coming post-COVID-19 world of today’s hospital digital executives.
The Most Dangerous Healthcare Trends in America
Becker’s Healthcare, one of our industry’s most respected news aggregators, conducted interviews with eight leading health system CIOs at the height of the pandemic. The topic: The most dangerous health IT trends in America today.
- Now more than ever, we’re being asked to do more with less, and at break-neck speed.
- We’re not moving fast enough. We need to embrace cloud computing, AI, big data, and new technologies and processes to improve outcomes for patients and make clinicians more productive.
- Security, security, security.
- The integration of clinical data across different sources and from different organizations without a national patient ID is dangerous.
Almost all of those interviewed also talked about telehealth and how years of planning and discussion were put into motion almost overnight. What they didn’t talk about was process.
Within healthcare, we must recognize that no matter how fabulous the technology, if the care teams perceive the technology as a “tripping hazard” within their workflows, they will create workarounds, which will impede full adoption. Those detours are costly and render the perception that the technology is obtrusive or broken. In today’s change-by-the-minute world, that’s a recipe for disaster.
Technology and the Human Aspect of Delivering Healthcare
While technology is often the catalyst for change, we need to recognize that it is only one of the many tools and influences built into the human aspect of delivering healthcare. At its core, clinical decision-making, and the delivery of care is in the hands of humans. Humans, who must process, prioritize, and act upon a multitude of information sources disseminated through disparate systems of alerts, alarms, interventions, and communication. Regardless of how amazing the technology, the biggest dependency will always be the human factor. And that goes for patients as well.
Dr. Edgar Chavez (CEO of Universal Community Health Center in Los Angeles) treats underserved communities in California. He says, “one of the biggest challenges we’ve had is to be patient with our patients and become educators as to the benefits of telehealth.” If we don’t, I’d venture to say we’ll see an increase in those patients delaying often-times critical treatment because they don’t or can’t participate in a face-to-face visit.
He’s right. Covid-19 has forever changed the delivery of care, forcing patients (especially those in underserved communities) to learn and accept technology that may have been totally foreign to them one year ago. Larger hospitals are trying to reduce the length of stay in hospitals by conducting multi-specialty rounding, using technology with an entire care team to better coordinate a care plan to get patients better, faster. And patients are now asking about remote scheduling and check-ins, providing more access, and improving communications pre and post-visit.
With change, comes opportunity and danger. Understanding where one becomes the other is our challenge as we emerge into a post-COVID world. As Dylan wrote almost 60 years ago….
Your old road is rapidly agin’
Please get out of the new one if you can’t lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin’.
