Workflow

A balanced approach to deploying new IT that reduces the burden on employees and provides patients with enhanced services is key to stabilizing and advancing healthcare industry processes.

At Penn Medicine, agile methods have been adopted by a number of information technology teams, including teams that support its enterprise EHR, data analytics, IT operations and systems administration.

It's crucial we recognize that what worked well before may not work well today. And it's essential to anticipate, prepare for, respond to and adapt to incremental change.

Too often, people think narrowly about integration, viewing it only in terms of making sure one system can talk to another. It must be far more than that.

While RPA has proved its success for some administrative functions, other technologies are emerging as options to help address the worker shortage and reduce workload in clinical and operational areas.

As ambient technologies improve, additional use cases to leverage voice will emerge – that leaves us with the question of how patients and physicians are responding to voice-enabled tools in their healthcare encounters.

While the 'robot' aspect of RPA gets most of the attention, successful implementation centers on the people and processes that will be impacted by the technology – and in a healthcare system where burnout is rampant, there are plenty of those.

Technology has proved to be a blessing for consumers who today have a plethora of care options and improved access to care. This is not the case with frontline providers who continue to suffer from burnout and fatigue. 

Even when things go back to some semblance of normal and care teams return to their regular processes, burnout will still be felt. It's up to healthcare leaders to help manage workplace stress.

CIOs need to look beyond just EHRs and explore stand-alone platforms to enhance care delivery – keeping focused on reliable patient data and streamlined clinical workflows.