By: Brian Sanderson
Over the next 5 years, automation will completely change healthcare.
I think we can all agree the use cases are incredible. The opportunities to win back time and money for employees are endless—opening the door for a massive bottom-line boost.
The only problem is, where do you start?
Automation can be so hard to implement well, that it’s earning a reputation as an “empty promise” for many organizations.
As a CFO coach in the healthcare industry, I can tell you that most leadership teams are extremely frustrated with fits, starts, and the overall lack of ROI.
The ROI potential is endless—but many organizations don’t implement well enough to see it.
I’ve seen this situation play out over and over:
- Organization falls in love with a romanticized view of an automation solution.
- Organization tries to implement it.
- Organization realizes this is way more complex than they thought, and start to think, “What did I get myself into?”
- The implementation either doesn’t go well, or the ROI they get is much lower than they expected.
As a healthcare leader, this can leave you feeling more than a little discouraged. After all, it only takes one failed implementation to make the rest of your leadership team gun-shy about ever trying something like this again.
So if you’re going to stick your neck out on the line and go to bat for an automation solution…how do you make sure it’s going to bring you ROI?
The truth is, this really can transform your organization. I’ve watched many of these implementations succeed—and many fail. And I’ve discovered a pattern:
The ones who fail to ROI, also failed to plan ahead effectively.
To succeed, you’re going to need a plan to accurately estimate:
- Costs
- How complex this will be to implement
- How much labor this is going to save you
Imagine how powerful automation could be if you knew these things beforehand. You’d have a predictable road toward a brighter future.
That’s why, on my automation coaching calls, I recommend leaders do a little exercise to get as close to these things as possible.
I call this exercise the “Automation Opportunity Graph.” And it can save you a world of time, energy, and headaches.
Obviously you can’t get perfectly accurate numbers. But what you can do is project them, based on complexity of implementation vs. labor saved.
Chart out all your opportunities on a graph. On the Y axis, write “complexity.” On the X axis, write “labor.”
Your goal is to get a better understanding of the opportunities in front of you—based on how complex each will be to implement, vs. how much labor is involved to implement it.
Another crucial step in this process: Calculate (don’t estimate) ROI opportunities. Show the bigger ones by using bigger circles.
The idea of this graph is to show you where to start—or what to do next.
The bottom left should come first if you’re looking for quick wins. And the top of the chart should be your biggest revenue impact. Depending on your interest, let this guide you to the results you want.
The world of healthcare automation is coming soon. Get on board now, or be left behind.
Healthcare automation will change the industry in several ways. And as healthcare evolves, the skill set needed to be a great leader is evolving too. You’re going to have to adopt a new mindset on new opportunities (more on that here)—and be ready to pivot more than you ever have.
Savvy hospitals and other healthcare organizations are already adopting these new technologies. But the smartest ones are also planning ahead before they jump in.
Make sure you know what your needs are, and how a solution can meet those needs—and then take massive action to transform your organization.
This post has been sponsored by Forrest Group LLC
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