Digital HealthChange Management Ensures the Success of Digital Health Transformation Initiatives

In the past couple of years, a good many hospitals and healthcare systems have adopted digital technologies in their functional units. For instance, there’s been growing enthusiasm for remote patient monitoring, which can improve care for patients with poorly controlled chronic illnesses. Most of this growth was driven by the COVID-19 pandemic when the decision was made to avoid patient overcrowding and control staff ratios. It’s worth stressing that, in many cases, institutions providing medical and surgical treatment for sick or injured people took a piecemeal approach to digital transformation initiatives, concentrating on the same business and customer models.

After two years of the coronavirus pandemic, the adoption of digital technologies has developed differently. Some hospitals and healthcare systems resist the large-scale use of digital technologies, while others struggle to manage successful adoption. Speaking of which, with a change management approach, the organization takes ownership of the project to guarantee the success of digital transformation initiatives. There shouldn’t be reservations regarding the application of change management, as it’s paramount to embedding technologies across the organization to drive fundamental change.

What Is Change Management in Simple Terms?

Change management is a process (or best practices) of planning, implementing, and solidifying changes in an establishment. It helps ensure changes are realized in a controlled and safe manner, with minimal resistance from staff, therefore, eliminating anxiety, confusion, stress, etc. It goes without saying that managing change goes beyond devising a communication plan, where executive leaders announce that change is coming (e.g., big medical data integration). It’s necessary to support people across the organization from beginning to end to increase the likelihood of project success and make sure the investment pays off. Transformational change implies sudden alterations, bringing about a shift in how people, processes, and tools function.

Strategies To Effectively Manage Change During Digital Transformation

These days, the only constant we can rely on is change, so hospitals and healthcare systems must be capable of making good decisions quickly. Nothing is more difficult to undertake than to initiate a new order of things, so consider these strategies of change management.

Start Small to Make Big Progress

There’s a way to make progress right now that doesn’t involve a tremendous amount of time and effort: begin with small changes. Small changes act like stepping stones to better things. If you’re ready to think about a bigger goal, that’s fine, but it would be best to break it down into achievable and manageable chunks. The fact is that making rapid changes can be overwhelming to any organization, bringing feelings of uncertainty and loss of control, even if the change is positive. On the other hand, incremental change is more easily accepted, not to mention more straightforward to implement, which is why minor adjustments to systems can afford better results as opposed to a complete workflow redesign.

Get A Leader in Change Management to Deliver a Noteworthy Speech

Clinical and administrative staff regard their work as a vocation, not a profession, which means that they’re resistant to strategic agendas. The need for digital transformation might be obvious to the top team, yet the staff might not see it that way, so it’s necessary to involve people in the change process in a deeper and more meaningful way. People don’t need more information – they need motivation to be along for the ride. Many healthcare institutions turn to change management speakers to help their executives become better leaders, which in turn enhances the working environment. More often than not, a non-industry person is the answer because they’ve received a lot of training, so they know what to do when it comes down to helping others.

Include Employee Training in Your Change Management Strategy

The ever-evolving access to new technology is a good thing for business, but it can be frustrating for staff members who’ve just become accustomed to the old system or software. Given that your staff holds the key to realizing its full potential, include employee training in your change management strategy. Training must be customized for each job description. Not only do you need to provide ongoing support, but you also need to be on the lookout for potential issues (and opportunities to improve workflow). Staff members who are trained in new technology are more confident, so they can put what they’ve learned to good use. Equally, they’ll share insights with their co-workers.

Mobile healthcare, big data, and bioinformatics actively contribute to digital transformation, transforming operations and advancing patient care. Regrettably, overreliance on legacy systems, not to say anything of regulatory concerns and security challenges, renders the journey to digital transformation unintelligible. Adopting a change management approach can help you avoid the pitfalls of success.

Wrapping It Up

The integration of digital technology is a cultural change that requires hospitals and healthcare systems to change the status quo and get comfortable with failure. As with any change management initiative, there are several challenges organizations will face along the way, from technical barriers to people-centric issues – and everything in between. Without an action plan for overseeing and facilitating change, the project is more likely to fail, so it’s useful to think about the advantages that change management can bring. Get key people from all areas of the organization involved in your efforts, communicate the expected benefits, and form a change management task force to spread the plan.

All in all, while the digital transformation journey is long, creating a frequent checkpoint list can help measure the value of the initiatives. With digital transformation implemented, it’s possible to improve the performance of healthcare units, boost the productivity of the medical staff, and deliver advanced services to final consumers. Innovations in digital health are reshaping the way care is accessed and provided by helping to bridge gaps, expand access, enable personalized treatments, and eliminate geographical barriers. It’s expected that investments in the health tech arena will continue to expand, although investors might pull back.

No organization can afford to stand still, but every adjustment made should be carefully planned and implemented because it could end up doing more harm than good.

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