Most organizations fail at innovation because they fail at change.
Truly effective healthcare software has the power to transform your business processes, workflow and workplace for the better. Many of these software procurements are driven by IT and have the necessary support of clinical executives.
However, the only way the true, transformative power of your new software can be realized is through employee adoption of the new technologies and processes. Committed, comprehensive buy-in from all affected stakeholders is mandatory if your software investments are to gain traction and deliver benefits to the organization, the users and patients alike.
True health care innovation can only take place if disciplined change management principles are coupled with clinical and operational expertise and product knowledge to guide an organization down a tried and tested path to change adoption.
Time and again, we hear from our customers that they feel their IT investment hasn’t quite delivered on its promise of process and workflow improvement. When we dig a little deeper, we discover clinicians have not been adequately trained on the software or that workflows and processes haven’t been effectively redesigned to leverage the power of the new technology. Invariably, employees are frustrated as something that was supposed to improve their work day is seemingly hindering it instead. For example, one hospital stakeholder complained:
“Small issues post-implementation were left unresolved leading to workarounds and dissatisfaction.”
What happened at that organization wasn’t a poor software investment but rather, a poor investment in training, change management and adoption. Rather than feeling empowered by the new software, the users felt confused and abandoned and were compelled to revert to old ways of conducting business – essentially negating the potential ROI of its investment in radiology software.
These issues of change adoption are easily addressed and absolutely vital to a project’s success. When your organization is implementing new technology, be sure you partner with a vendor who can support activities around implementation readiness, go-live and post go-live by combining three capabilities:
- Clinical
- Operations
- Change Management
In other words, your vendor should help customers address challenges associated with change by offering change management services delivered by consultants with specific medical imaging, clinical and operational expertise.
These consultants should employ customized diagnostic tools to identify and calibrate organizational performance to industry benchmarks and subsequently, identify and address the organization’s pain points.
Further, they should collaborate with the client throughout this phase and equip them with the skills and tools necessary to create a more agile, efficient imaging department. Moving forward, the customer will then be able to conduct interventions on their own and address the root causes of work flow, staffing and technical problems themselves.
For more information on how Change Healthcare can help you navigate the IT adoption process, contact us.
The post Why Change Management Is Crucial for Maximizing the Potential of Health IT Investment appeared first on Medical Imaging Talk Blog: Covering News & Advancements - Change Healthcare.