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Tag: Integration Strategy

Healthcare M&A… Another present for the holidays?

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Healthcare Mergers and Acquisition

HLTH 2022 has come and gone and the technologies out there promise great things from healthcare in the future, but these technologies take time to mature and prove there efficacy. While there is hope for the future, the specter of decreased valuations and funding looms over an industry poised for change. There is one thing has been clear these past few months, consolidation is continuing, the holiday sales season is in full swing for the healthcare industry. While a large merger, or smaller consolidation may be an early holiday present for executives and investors, it creates challenges and headaches for IT teams and clinical staff. Tylenol certainly won’t help cure these woes.

Migrating different EHR systems is probably the largest hurdle, but there are also systems for pharmacy and radiology that can create a nightmare for IT teams that are already taxed maintaining existing systems. The additional burden can be overwhelming and cause systems to grind to a halt.

For clinical staff focused on seeing patients and taking care of their needs, the disruption to smooth operations can likewise be overwhelming. Did all the information transfer over? Has a patient’s medication allergy been missed? Has an existing medication been missed that could interact with a new one? These are concerns that need to addressed to put the clinical staff’s mind at ease and ensure that they can provide the best possible care to the patient’s.

Beyond patient safety concerns, there are also productivity concerns. Ineffective integration can lead to slowdowns in clinics, creating long wait times and dissatisfaction among staff and the patients who are waiting to be seen. Missing radiology reports, delays in diagnostic testing, lab results not showing, and prescriptions not getting routed properly are just some of the problems that can arise without proper integration and testing of systems.

Clinical staff are not IT experts and likely have little idea of what happens behind the scenes to ensure the smooth flow of information and data that enable safe and effective care. The clinical teams just want systems that work. When systems fail clinical staff safety can be compromised, staff frustration will grow as they resort to work-arounds. Most clinical staff have experienced this when EHRs and other systems were first rolled out, they are often jaded by these experiences that were disruptive and disconnected.

How do you ensure that transition to a new EHR will populate the data where it is expected? Will there be conflicting patient information? Will the images be migrated over to the right patient? Will prescriptions be sent to the pharmacy?

There is no end to the questions from clinicians about how it will work and what the experience will be after. How prepared are the teams behind the scenes to enable this migration? Do IT teams have the experience necessary to carry out this operation in an efficient and effective manner, after all, it’s not something they do every day.

There are many stresses associated with mergers and consolidation, IT systems should not be one of them. Tido Inc. can help handle these questions and work with IT teams to enable efficient and effective systems integration and migration. Check out Tido’s integration and migration packages.

Mobile Apps Management for Health Systems

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In this episode of This Week In Health Tech, Vik and Jimmy are joined by Wayne Che, CTO of Sowingo Inc. The group jumps into what it takes to manage and develop mobile apps for health systems.

Here is what they discussed:

  • “If I’m a health system and people are asking for a certain app, should I Build or Buy the app?”
    • With the boom in the app economy because of COVID-19, Vik and Wayne talk about the best approach healthcare providers can take for mobile app development. Wayne goes over pro’s and con’s for Build vs Buy apps.
  • “We recently launched a new digital package to help health systems manage all the mobile apps, and it does include custom development.”
    • Tido Inc offers a Digital Package for the management of mobile and web apps for healthcare systems.
  • “A very important point is continually testing and maintaining the app.”
    • As we’ve mentioned before, you can never have enough testing. Being able to provide an app that works correctly on all devices is one of the first steps in providing good patient engagement. Wayne makes a point that testing on real devices is crucial so the best experience can be provided.
  • “From an infrastructure standpoint, do you want to host in-house or do you make use of cloud providers?”
    • With so many cloud-based providers available, Vik asks Wayne if storing the infrastructure in-house has any advantage over the cloud. Wayne makes several points in favor of cloud-based, such as privacy and security compliance, cost and for scaling.
  • “Regardless of the Cures Act, healthcare innovation is happening.”
    • The ONC’s Cures Final Act allows seamless and secure access, exchange, and use of electronic health information. Vik and Wayne discuss how API’s can be used for data sharing. The healthcare industry has been lagging behind other industries, and Vik comments that innovation needs to happen to provide the patient the best healthcare experience.
  • “One thing is clear, whether you build in-house, buy it, or take a hybrid approach, we are going to see more and more apps.”
    • Jimmy asks the best approach to mobile development, and Wayne gives his take on different development models. Vik mentions that the innovation is not going to stop with apps, citing examples such as wearables and remote-monitoring apps.

Listen to the full episode:

Learn more about Tido’s Digital Packages:
Tido’s Digital Packages


Click below for more information regarding Tido’s test automation packages:
Test Automation Packages

Sowingo Inc:

https://sowingo.com/

Focus on the integration strategy. Don’t lose on patient care, workflow, and revenue!

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 healthcare Integration
Integrated health system plays a very important part in delivering top notch patient care, and sustaining healthcare system. There are numerous systems and solutions available in the market today to assist with healthcare integration. Most healthcare organizations have some type of solution in place to manage integration, though there are many health organizations that still have point to point interfaces in place.
 
Strategy Recognition
Even if a health system has some integration product in place does not always mean that the integration solution is providing the most meaningful and efficient information flow to improve patient care.
Mission of health systems in some form or the other is to deliver exceptional patient care and improve overall health of the population. Health systems focused on this end result of providing exceptional patient care should focus on improving organization’s communication and integration efficiency as integration brings together all systems within the health system and external partners.
Focusing on improving organization’s information flow requires recognition and commitment to developing an integration strategy.
Organizations that overlook need to develop and execute an integration strategy might lose on patient care, workflow, employee efficiency, and revenue.
 
What is successful integration?
Do we consider a connection and exchange of data between two systems successful integration? Maybe, if all you are focused on is the short term goal of exchange of data between the two systems.
But if you want assurance that your integration is successful and will meet your organizations’ short-term and long-term goals, then your integration should adhere to carefully planned integration strategy.
 
What is Integration Strategy?
Sorry to disappoint but there is no one-size-fits-all model for integration strategy and successful integration. Integration strategy follows basic principles for healthcare integration such as:
 
  • Focus on patient’s needs, engagement, and participation
  • Continued patient care across all points of access
  • Commitment to quality of services and continuous care improvement
  • Use of latest technologies for efficient communication-information flow and protect personal health information
  • Treatment and care interventions linked to clinical outcomes
  • Engage providers with integration of provider ambulatory clinics
Integration strategy is customized for each organization. Strategy includes assessment of current environment, performing a gap analysis of technology, resources, and processes. Integration strategy should clearly define strategic initiatives needed for the organization and a roadmap to achieve these initiatives.
 
Don’t lose on this opportunity
As per Gartner’s latest forecast, IT spending is going to reach $3.85 trillion in 2019, and communications counts for biggest IT spending. Investing in integration solutions and resources will continue to increase however organizations with a clear integration strategy will maximize potential of their investments in integration solutions and resources for successful continuum of care across all points of access and increase in patient satisfaction.