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3 Steps to Better Prepare for the Retirement of Your Integration Engineer

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Healthcare Mergers and Acquisition

Our extensive experience managing integrations for various health systems has shown that it is quite common for organizations to depend heavily on one or two key engineers. When these engineers retire, it can pose significant challenges. As an IT director or CIO, it is crucial to prepare for this eventuality to ensure a smooth transition and minimize associated risks. Here are three steps to help you navigate this process effectively:

1. Planning for a Seamless Transition

a. Develop a Transition Plan:

  • Overlap Period: Plan for an overlap period where the retiring engineer works alongside new team members for 10-12 months. This period allows enough time for knowledge transfer and for new team members to encounter various interface issues. It also helps them learn organizational processes and build relationships with IT staff and other departments.
  • Engage an Integration Partner: Partner with a firm like Tido Inc., which provides integration solutions and has experienced integration engineers. Our engineers are familiar with every major EHR and integration engine, and they understand the importance of developing working relationships with IT and service departments like radiology and lab.

b. Assessment and Future State:

  • Comprehensive Assessment: Conduct a thorough assessment of the current integration environment. This allows the new team to learn the setup and interfaces and produces detailed documentation as a byproduct. This assessment should also include discussions with stakeholders to outline a future state and roadmap.
  • Enhance for Future: Tido’s integration assessments not only document the current state but also create a future vision that aligns with strategic initiatives and provides a roadmap for implementation.

2. Knowledge Transfer

a. Documentation and Guides:

  • Enhanced Documentation: During the transition period, ensure the current engineer works with the new team to update all system documentation, integration processes, and project details.
  • Create How-To Guides: Develop step-by-step guides for critical tasks and recurring issues. Tido’s team has templates to assist in creating comprehensive guides and manuals. We also use tools to make documentation easily searchable by any team member.

b. Training and Mentoring:

  • Knowledge Transfer Sessions: Organize training sessions where the retiring engineer spends dedicated time with the new team to transfer knowledge about different interfaces and special nuances.
  • Mentoring: Recognize that the retiring engineer has extensive knowledge of interfaces, organizational processes, and application workflows. Tido Inc. allows the retiring engineer to mentor and work closely with our team, who have been through similar transitions before.

3. Communication Plan

a. Internal Communication:

  • Inform Team Members: Clearly communicate the retirement plan and transition timeline to all relevant team members and stakeholders. This includes the IT team and other department managers and directors. Specially include communication about how to reach support for integration issues if this process will change. Tido’s team can share examples of previous communication plans and help draft these communications if needed.
  • Provide Updates: Keep the team informed about the progress of the transition and any changes to processes or responsibilities, especially support processes.

b. External Communication:

  • Notify Partners and Clients: If the retiring engineer has direct contact with external partners or clients, inform them of the change and introduce the new team.

Benefits of Partnering with Tido Inc.

  • Expertise: Tido’s team has over 15 years of experience providing integration management and support to health systems across North America.
  • Continuity: We ensure smooth, uninterrupted operations during transitions.
  • Scalability: Tido Inc. can scale services according to your needs, providing additional resources if required.
  • Cost-Effective: Our solutions are cost-effective, saving you the expense of hiring and training new personnel. You gain access to an experienced integration team rather than relying on a single individual.

By following these three steps and leveraging the expertise of Tido Inc., you can ensure a seamless transition, effective knowledge transfer, and clear communication, maintaining the integrity and efficiency of your integration systems. Need more information? Please contact us.

TownHall: AI Adoption, Risks, Operational Automation and Predictions

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Today on TownHall, Brett Oliver, Family Physician and Chief Medical Information Officer at Baptist Health talks with Vik Patel, Chief Operating Officer at Tido. As we navigate through the complexities and potentials of AI adoption within health systems, Vik challenges listeners to think critically about the current landscape.

How can AI not only enhance clinical applications but also streamline operational workflows in ways previously unimagined? And with the rapid evolution of AI technologies, what are the risks and considerations health systems must weigh to protect patient data and ensure the unbiased, accurate performance of AI models? This episode doesn’t just scratch the surface; it delves deep into the practicalities and futuristic possibilities of AI in improving patient care, operational efficiency, and the overall healthcare landscape.

Subscribe: https://www.thisweekhealth.com/subscr…

Linkedin:   / thisweekhealth  

Twitter:   / thisweekhealth  

Donate: Alex’s Lemonade Stand: Foundation for Childhood Cancer – https://www.alexslemonade.org/mypage/…

Is your digital front door open or closed?

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Healthcare digital applicatioons

According to a recent JD Power survey the majority of their respondents have accessed telehealth services and for many services it is the preferred method of interaction. 80% of their respondents report that telehealth is the preferred method for prescription refills. 51% of providers offer an online scheduling option according to a recent survey from Optum. It doesn’t stop there, the digital front door is the modern gateway for health systems to welcome patients.

Imagine walking into a hospital or doctors office and finding a void or blank wall. Sounds a little dystopian, but it is quite possible this can be the experience of customers coming to a website and trying to enter an appointment.

A digital front door is the modern access point for healthcare, and it’s more than just a front a door. Digital strategies require a seamless digital experience for all services offered by the organization. A seamless transition from the digital to the physical front door if needed. Consider all the options available for enhancing the digital experience beyond the front door.

Is the health system going to be offering online appointment scheduling?

Want to steer patients away from the ER and towards Urgent Care with chatbots and digital symptom checkers connected to the first available appointment for telehealth or virtual urgent care?

Customers and the Federal Government clamoring for price transparency, is your system connected to health insurance and billing to offer price estimates?

SMS options offer easy appointment reminders and many other opportunities for engagement, are the messages going through?

Are you offering SMS or online intake questions to speed registration? Are they feeding over to the EHR for the receptionist to see?

Few would argue that the customer’s digital health experience should be as seamless and reliable possible, providing an early opportunity to build engagement and trust. The digital front door may be the first experience a customer has with the organization, if the digital experience is not seamless, doubt starts to creep in about the rest of the experience. Systems that have disrupted connections can lead to a rocky experience for the customer. If they’ve already filled out the registration information online, why do they need to do it again?

High reliability organizations require high reliability systems. While most networks are stable and function as expected, even a small glitch can have large consequences and disrupt the customer relationship. If the patient and clinician experience is that none of these systems work, or do not work consistently, why should they keep using them? Customers place a lot of trust with clinical staff, if the staff doesn’t have faith in the systems, they will steer customers away from digital solutions, negating the time and investment spent on these solutions.

Are you pro-actively monitoring for network disruptions? Is the IT system meeting the expectation of clinicians and staff? Pro-active monitoring, reporting and resolution of disruptions builds faith in the systems that support clinical staff and customers.

Healthcare should be welcoming, are you slamming your digital front door in the face of customers? Check out Tido’s end to end monitoring and digital apps test automation solutions, ensure your digital front door leads to the services your customers want and need.

Tido’s Trailblazing Tech Bulletin – Issue #1 Digital Transformations

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health care applicationsIssue #1—Digital Transformations

April 20 2022

Hello everyone! We’re pleased to welcome you to the very first issue of Trailblazing Tech from Tido. 

From now on, you’ll receive exciting monthly updates that dig into cutting-edge health tech topics, such as: the future of digital health, innovative interoperability, mobile and web apps, automated monitoring services, and—of course—some juicy tidbits about what’s new at Tido.

So, from the bottom of our digital hearts, thank you for embarking on this journey with us. Wishing you all an amazing April, and a splendid spring season! And we hope you enjoy Tido’s insights on extraordinary technologies that are revolutionizing the healthcare industry.

 

End-users are actually superior to healthcare professionals at rooting out application and integration issues. Why are we passing the buck to them? We can do better!

As it turns out, 95% of integration issues in hospital applications are manually identified by end-users. On average, it takes 35 frustrating minutes for end-users to identify and report issues to the IT help desk—and a gruelling 55 minutes for staff members or vendors to initiate a fix for the issue. 

That’s why we’re working with healthcare teams to use Azure Monitor for automated system monitoring, transforming their digital services to drastically reduce reliance on manual reporting, while also significantly improving customer service. The positive feedback we’ve received is truly incredible!

 

Digital transformation is accelerating in healthcare, but don’t worry—you can keep up! How to provide the best user experience in web and mobile applications.

The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated digital transformation in every major sector, vastly increasing our reliance on technology to meet many of our daily needs. And healthcare is no exception! 

Our health systems have greatly expanded their digital footprint to better serve our patients, empowering them to perform routine tasks without leaving the comfort of their home—such as paying bills, requesting medication refills, and even receiving personal health updates digitally.

But the process of fine-tuning the user experience has been—to put it mildly—quite complicated. To help other healthcare providers to navigate this important issue, Baptist Health’s team reveals how they’re using web and mobile test automation as a key part of their ongoing digital transformation.

 

The gift of health tech for your healthy ears! Check out this lively, illuminating new episode of our podcast: This Week in Health Tech.

In this jam-packed episode of This Week in Health Tech, Vik and Jimmy have an incredible chat with Dr. Brett Oliver (Chief Medical Information Officer, Baptist Health) to dive into several fascinating topics, such as the future of telehealth, digital transformation, interoperability, cultural change across the industry, and much more.

 

Global Health Tech Buzz:

  1. Chatbot Technology Still Has a Long Way to Go
  2. Meditech and Google Health to collaborate on clinical search in Expanse EHR 
  3. Top takeaways from HIMSS22: What CIOs need to know 

 

That’s all from Tido for now. Thanks for reading! Stay tuned next month for Issue. Subscribe Here.

Does your digital health system rely on end-users to find production application and integration issues?

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health care applications

As it turns out, 95% of integration issues in hospital applications are manually identified by end-users. On average, it takes 35 frustrating minutes for end-users to identify and report issues to the IT help desk—and a gruelling 55 minutes for staff members or vendors to initiate a fix for the issue. 

  • Currently, most healthcare organizations have basic monitoring in place for their digital assets, such as operating system errors and breaks in connectivity. However, typically there is no active end-to-end monitoring of the production environment that would alert the appropriate staff proactively. 
  • This means that healthcare staff only become aware of issues in digital systems when end-users take the time to file a report. 
  • Help desk workers then have to use the minimal information provided by the end-user to decipher which systems might be affected, and then try to contact the appropriate analyst for specific applications or integration programs—which can take long hours to fix, compromising the integrity of essential healthcare systems. 

The reliance on manual identification and reporting of issues causes considerable delays in diagnosing and fixing issues with digital health systems, which can have a significantly negative impact on patient safety and outcomes. 

At Tido, we realized that there had to be a better way to proactively monitor applications and interfaces in production, to make IT staff aware of the issues immediately; before the end-users are even aware that there is an issue with the system. To address this ongoing problem, we have developed high-quality automated monitoring services for healthcare systems.

  • Tido’s monitoring framework uses Microsoft Azure Monitor to reduce reliance on manual reporting—helping to detect 95% of application and integration issues automatically in the production environment. 
  • Tido’s end-to-end monitoring framework automates application, interfaces, and data checks in EHR and all downstream systems in the production environment: PACS, Pharmacy, LAB, Cardio, Ambulatory, and more. 
  • Tido’s monitoring solution sends automated notifications to responsible parties and the IT help desk within seconds, alerting them about live application or interface issues to avoid unscheduled downtime and reduce patient safety issues.

Contact us to find out more about how your healthcare organization can subscribe to Tido’s end-to-end monitoring packages, to proactively maintain the quality of all the applications and interfaces in your digital health system.

Oracle buys Cerner

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In this episode of This Week in Health Tech, Vik and Jimmy discuss the implications of Oracle buying Cerner and what this means for the future of healthcare.

Here is what they discussed:

  • “Oracle is buying Cerner, and Cerner is the #2 EHR in healthcare. Big Tech has made a move in healthcare”
    • Some big news occurred recently within the healthcare space. Oracle made their biggest purchase yet and bought Cerner for $28.3 billion. This is huge news as Oracle is one of the world’s largest tech companies. With all of the products that Oracle brings, there is massive potential that Oracle can bring to healthcare. Vik spends some time talking about various products that Oracle has.
  • “Anytime there is a big acquisition like this, it sends a signal that there is huge potential in the healthcare market.”
    • Jimmy asks Vik why the stock price of Oracle dropped after purchasing Cerner. Stock price initially dropped because of the uncertainty of Big Tech getting involved with healthcare. Vik mentions examples such as Google and Microsoft trying their hand in healthcare and failing. The difference this time being that Oracle purchased an already well-known company in Cerner, so there might be some growing pains but over time they will figure out the best way to integrate Oracle and Cerner products.
  • “I think there is a huge opportunity with analytics and making sense of all the data.”
    • A huge opportunity for Oracle now that they have acquired Cerner is being able to use their analytics and AI to make sense of all the new data they will receive from Cerner. Cerner gains a big advantage over its competitors now that Oracle will be able to analyze the data. It presents the opportunity for figuring out more efficient health systems and realizing significant ROI. This can be a huge selling point for clients in choosing Cerner over its competitors.
  • “Do deals like this happen quickly or is it in talks for years?”
    • Jimmy brings up the point that the CEO of Cerner is relatively new, being CEO since August 2021. He asks Vik if the deal with Oracle was something that they new CEO did or if it was something that was in the talks for years. Vik speaks on why the new CEO would want to do the deal, such as Oracle already having the latest tech in place.

 

Listen to the full episode:

 

Click below to learn more about Tido’s Integration Packages:

Tido’s Integration Packages

Telemedicine: Synchronous vs Asynchronous

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In this episode of This Week in Health Tech, Vik and Jimmy are joined by Dr. Laura Purdy, CEO and Co-Founder of MD Integrations. The group discuss different approaches towards Telehealth and the future of digital healthcare.

Here is what they discussed:

  • “So how did you first get involved with telehealth?”
    • This episode starts with the introduction of Dr. Laura Purdy. Dr. Purdy started her medical career in the army, where she realized early on that telehealth will be the future for healthcare.
  • “So when did you realize that telehealth could be the future?”
    • Even before the pandemic Dr. Purdy realized the benefit and future applications telehealth could bring to provide better patient care. She discusses medical challenges see saw early in her career, such as scheduling and wait times, that could have been solved using telehealth.
  • “What was telehealth like before mainstream technology came around?”
    • Nowadays telehealth can be achieved using the multitude of digital apps such as Zoom, however prior to these technologies existing, it was done very differently. Dr. Purdy discusses how telehealth was achieved prior to these new technologies. She talks on challenges such as limited technology, system requirements, connection issues, and scheduling conflicts.
  • “Let’s jump into what MD Integrations does.”
    • MD Integrations is an all-in-one telehealth solution. Outsourcing telehealth needs, they provide a complete and flexible telehealth solution for companies who want to offer virtual healthcare. Dr. Purdy addresses issues she saw when it came to telehealth and how she created MD Integrations to help solve those issues, such as EMRs. EMRs are not designed for telehealth services, as they are still designed for brick and mortar providers.
  • “Where do you see telehealth going in the future? Are people preferring to use synchronous or asynchronous services?”
    •  When the pandemic started, telehealth visits skyrocketed. However over the past 6 months, telehealth visits has dropped dramatically. Dr. Purdy explains that patients would rather use the asynchronous portion of telehealth over synchronous. Just as with other industries, people prefer not to have to attend a face to face visit. She then talks on where synchronous services are applicable, such as Pediatrics.
  • “Why are there so many different telehealth providers and what differentiates them from each other?”
    • Vik asks why there are so many niche telehealth companies springing up when there are telehealth giants such as Teledoc and Livingo.  Dr. Purdy explains in detail the reason behind need for niche telehealth companies and why this market does not need to depend only on the telehealth giants.
  • “In terms of patient data, how do you get access to the data you need?”
    • The group then jumps in the integration challenges related to Telehealth and how to overcome challenge of access to data from health system, clinic, telehealth portals.

Listen to the full episode:

Click below to learn more about Tido’s Integration Packages:

Tido’s Integration Packages

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Tido’s Digital Packages

Learn more about MD Integrations: https://mdintegrations.com/

How to deal with Expectations for Digital Apps and increase access to On-Demand Care

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In this episode of This Week in Health Tech, Vik and Jimmy are joined by Shelby Sanderford, CEO of Docpace. The trio discuss changes happening in healthcare, focusing on digital transformation and on-demand care.

Here is what they discussed:

  • “What is Docpace?”
    • Vik and Shelby start off the episode talking about how they each got into health tech. Shelby then discusses her company Docpace. Docpace is an A.I. system that increases the productivity of your office while keeping patients updated on appointment times including delays.
  • “In the past few years, what changes have you seen in the healthcare space?”
    • The group discuss how health tech has changed over the years. Shelby talks on the changes she’s seen, including health providers switching to electronic health records and applications. During the pandemic, the acceptance of these digital apps has really become a necessity. Vik agrees with Shelby, adding that there is an increased expectation from patients to use digital apps for personal healthcare.
  • “During the pandemic, what kept you going and believing in what you were doing?”
    •  Shelby talks on how she comes to find problems and addresses them. By putting herself in patients shoes, she is able to realize what issues need to be fixed. The biggest motivation to keep going was realizing that a problem did exist and that there was a simple solution that could reduce patient wait times and waiting room challenges.
  • “Why can’t healthcare be on-demand?”
    • Vik poses the question and wonders why healthcare is so far behind other industries when it comes to on-demand services. Pre COVID, most patients and providers were okay with the status quo. However post COVID, the shift towards digital transformation has created expectations for patients when it comes to personal healthcare. Shelby adds that healthcare is shifting to a more proactive care approach over reactive care.
  •  “What kind of challenges have you seen?”
    • As with all new technology, there can be several obstacles and challenges to overcome. Vik asks Shelby about some the initial challenges Docpace had to deal with. Shelby talks on challenges with EHR integration and having to first completely understand the systems in already in place. Another challenge the group discuss deals with making sure that healthcare providers across the board are on the same page. The fragmentation in healthcare is gradually going away, and FHIR APIs will play a crucial role in reducing fragmentation in healthcare.
  • “How do you use A.I. to address patients needs?”
    • Vik and Shelby discuss the pro’s and con’s of using A.I. in healthcare. A lot of times, A.I. functionality is a black box in the sense that you really don’t know what is going on behind the scenes. Shelby discusses how Docpace uses A.I. to improve the patient waiting room experience.

Listen to the full episode:

Click below to learn more about Tido’s Integration Packages:

Tido’s Integration Packages

Click below to learn more about Tido’s Digital Packages:

Tido’s Digital Packages

Improving Patient Safety with E2E Applications Monitoring

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In this episode of This Week in Health Tech, Vik and Jimmy talk about healthcare system applications and integration monitoring and how they play a big role in ensuring patient safety.

Here is what they discussed:

  • “This might surprise you, but in health systems today, around 95% of application issues are user identified.”
    • Vik talks on the current state of healthcare applications monitoring. He remarks that most issues dealing with healthcare systems are identified first by the user. This presents a large patient safety issue. Vik explains the issue in detail using an example, showing how reliance on manual intervention is risky and time-consuming, which could lead to adverse patient events.
  • “The time that it takes to find the issue, diagnose the issue, and fix the issue is unacceptable. I don’t know how we can continue just relying on manual intervention to find the issues.”
    • As the reliance on health systems and digital apps continues to increase, there needs to be a better way to track the data. Using the example from before, Vik explains how E2E (end-to-end) applications monitoring would have prevented the issue by detecting the exact location of the problem thus cutting down the issue diagnosis time in production environments.
  • “Along with identifying and flagging issues, we’ve also built a notification framework to alert the right person to deal with the issue.”
    • Tido’s E2E Applications Monitoring does not stop with flagging and diagnosing issues. Also included is a well defined notifications framework to alert the appropriate staff members of a system issue.
  • “If it ain’t broke, then why fix it?”
    • If health systems have not considered using E2E systems monitoring before, then why start not? Jimmy asks Vik why there is a need for such an implementation. Vik explains that EHR digital transformation, and other electronic health systems have only been implemented within the last 10-15 years. Even within that short amount of time, reliance on such systems has increased and continues to increase. Vik states that this is the right time to implement such a system.
  • “We are able to see what is going on between all these systems: where data is going, how its flowing, where there is a break, and how to flag it.”
      • Vik explains the architecture behind Tido’s E2E Applications Monitoring. With Tido’s E2E monitoring in place, there is significant ROI, as staff members do not need to spend time locating and diagnosing the issue. Patient outcome also greatly improves under the system.

Listen to the full episode:

 

Tido Inc. is currently offering a promotion for 6 months free E2E Applications and Integration Monitoring. Visit https://tidoinc.com/contact-tido-inc/ and include E2E in your message to claim this deal. This promotion lasts until November 30, 2021.

Click below to learn more about Tido’s Integration Packages:

Tido’s Integration Packages

Click below to learn more about Tido’s Digital Packages:

Tido’s Digital Packages

Telehealth, eVisits, and Digital Transformation with Dr. Brett Oliver

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In the latest episode of This Week in Health Tech, Vik and Jimmy are joined by Dr. Brett Oliver, Chief Medical Information Office for Baptist Health Kentucky and Indiana. The trio discuss telehealth, eVisits, and how COVID has impacted digital transformation and cultural changes.

Here is what they discussed:

  • “Why is there a rise/spike in COVID cases?”
    • The group start off the episode discussing the rising number of COVID cases. Dr. Oliver indicates the main factors for this are due to Delta variant’s high transmission rate along with rural areas having low vaccination rates. Rural facilities are being overwhelmed with cases, and they cannot transfer patients to larger facilities because larger facilities are overwhelmed as well.
  • “Are you hearing any feedback or concerns from patients when it comes to virtual care?”
    • COVID has definitely accelerated the shift towards virtual care. Vik asks how patients/providers feel about the virtual care being provided now and what the future holds for virtual care. Dr. Oliver states that the feedback they have received so far has been very positive. Virtual care is a great advantage for patients that are unable to visit a location easily. Being able to provide care virtually reduces the burden put on patients. Prior to COVID, Baptist Health had already implement virtual care for urgent care and eVisits. When it comes to providing virtual care for the future, Dr. Oliver emphasizes improving asynchronous remote visits, convenience, safety and utilization.
  • “Do you think the cultural shift towards virtual care is too soon or is this the right time?”
    • As the digital transformation is accelerated due to COVID, Jimmy poses the question whether this is the right time or not for this shift. Vik states that this is the right time, however he also indicates that we could go from a very basic experience to a very overwhelming experience, where patients have to choose from hundreds of apps which could again defeat the purpose of digital transformation. Dr. Oliver agrees and talks about having a process in place so that patients know exactly which app to use. Another concern Dr. Oliver brings up is the issue with patient data and interoperability.
  • “Even today in 2021, interoperability is still a main topic”
    • Vik and Dr. Oliver discuss how interoperability is a main focus moving forward with digital transformation. For the patient, being able to access your own data directly is a huge step in providing better and more reliable healthcare. Dr. Oliver talks about gaps in interoperability when it comes to post-acute care, such as nursing homes or rehabilitation centers. They also discuss how CMS/ONC is pushing for better interoperability with Patient/Provider FHIR APIs.
  • “How do you feel about A.I. in terms of healthcare?”
    • Both Vik and Dr. Oliver give their thoughts and opinions on the future of A.I.. Vik agrees with Dr. Oliver that it is too soon to integrate A.I. in terms of providing better healthcare. The duo then discusses using A.I. in terms of analytics.

Listen to the full episode:

 

Click below to learn more about Tido’s Integration Packages:

Tido’s Integration Packages

Click below to learn more about Tido’s Digital Packages:

Tido’s Digital Packages