Acute care organizations are facing many competing priorities when it comes to IT investment.
Not only must IT departments consider how to incorporate disruptive new technologies such as Artificial Intelligence and the Internet of Things, but they also need to continue investing in solutions which allow nurses and doctors to be as productive and effective as possible in meeting patient needs.
Given the continued uncertainty of the industry climate, however, there is one area which healthcare organizations should not overlook: patient experience. With patients increasingly expecting a higher standard of care and overall experience when visiting any facility, the perceived experience of patients can have a significant and wide-reaching impact on organizations.
As an interesting editorial in the Harvard Business Review shows, patient expectations are becoming increasingly consumerized, and it’s inevitable that healthcare organization will be judged on how patients rate their experience. While many healthcare professionals might initially find this notion troubling, the authors point out that facilities that succeeded in raising patient satisfaction also saw improvements in other key measurable outcomes.
What’s more, a focus on patient experience can have a significant impact on overall financial performance and organizational health. Research from Deloitte shows that hospitals which record higher levels of patient experience also report increased profitability. The study found that facilities which scored an ‘excellent’ HCAHPS patient rating between 2008-2014 also recorded significantly higher performance financially.
The same research also highlights the factors which drive how patients perceive their healthcare experience. Not surprisingly, an engaged and motivated workforce was the single biggest factor influencing how an experience was rated. But technology and IT policies also have a direct impact on overall patient satisfaction levels. This means that when targeted correctly, IT investments can directly impact experience and help improve overall financial performance.
Simply spending more is not an option for most organizations, however. According to KPMG half of hospitals expect to keep their spending flat in the coming year. The key, then, is making the right investment choices. There are a number of strategies organizations can employ to improve the patient experience for acute, short term and long care patients. Through focusing on where, how and when a patient experiences care – for example waiting rooms, doctor and nurse interactions or the patient room– IT departments can prioritize technology spend in ways that improve the patient experience.
Some of the areas where IT leaders can look to see significant value in their technology implementations include:
• Empowering staff: Many studies show that a significant driver of patient experience is a happy and engaged staff. Investing in technologies that enable staff to spend more time with their patients – which tends to makes them happier in their jobs too – can significantly improve the patient experience. Technologies that directly impact the daily routine, such as software which enables greater nursing mobility or automate functions so that doctors spend more time with patients, can have an enormous impact on patient experience, staff satisfaction levels and organizational profitability.
• Investing in smart, patient-facing technologies: The consumerization of patient expectations has also led to new factors that influence how patients judge their experience. Extended wait times or dated, non-‘smart’ hospital rooms can factor significantly into patient expectations. Integrating solutions which can improve these areas of the patient experience can have wide-reaching benefits for any healthcare organization. For example, investing in data-driven predictive technologies such as smart scheduling tools to help reduce wait times in clinics and other areas can result in a more personalized and streamlined patient experience.
• Investing in data: Finally, investing in solutions which take advantage of the enormous amount of data now available is another way to help improve patient experience. With organizations increasingly investing in IoT solutions, ensuring that data is shared effectively between solutions and communicated to nurses and other caregivers can have profound effects on the patient experience. Simple measures, such as providing staff with real-time location and status information on IV pumps, or providing dashboards which present information in easily digestible fashion, can have direct impact on the timeliness and quality of patient care.
Prioritizing IT spending is always challenging, and it won’t get any easier as a whole new wave of technology like AI and machine learning hits the prime time. By paying intention to how new systems will impact patient experience – a proven driver of financial performance and care quality – hospitals can hone in on those investments for 2018 that should be the focus.
By Steve Elder, Director of Communications, STANLEY Healthcare