The healthcare industry tends to lag behind other industries when it comes to many things, especially the adoption and implementation of new technologies. There are several factors that contribute to this hesitancy, like the need to adhere to strict privacy and security regulations, new initiatives brought on by healthcare reform and consolidation within the industry. As technology continues to evolve, healthcare CIOs need to be able to identify and invest in technologies that will support key industry needs. CIOs should be looking for ways to leverage social, mobile, analytics and cloud (SMAC) solutions as they go through their software selection processes.
Here are 4 of the key actions necessary to leverage the power of SMAC:
Prepare for a hybrid IT environment
Healthcare organizations are facing several industry challenges and are feeling the pressure to transform their organizations in order to adapt to the evolving industry. The pressure to reduce costs, develop population health management capabilities and a shift to value-based reimbursement and payment models are requiring healthcare organizations to look beyond traditional solutions. In many cases CIOs are turning to a hybrid IT environment and leveraging external service providers within their solution architectures. A hybrid IT ecosystem means less and less in house, and puts added pressure on IT leadership because they are still responsible for governance, security and service of the IT systems.
Get in front of interoperability
Interoperability has become front-and-center in healthcare, integration of systems and data from multiple sources is critical to meeting the demands of the transforming healthcare industry. Interoperability is essential to leveraging social, mobile, analytics and cloud (SMAC) capabilities. Healthcare CIOs need to establish a strong interoperability foundation in order to take advantage of SMAC. Robust integration and health information exchange (HIE) are required to meet the demands of the transforming healthcare industry and integration of SMAC must be part of the interoperability roadmap.
Leverage social media to engage consumers and patients and promote your patient portal
When it comes to patient portals, many healthcare CIOs are focused on meeting the requirements of Meaningful Use, rather than creating an engaging portal. Healthcare organizations need to look beyond Meaningful Use and create a patient portal that engages and empowers their patients. CIOs need to include market-driven patient portal features like: dynamic scheduling, gamification and telehealth to meet the demands of the market. Learn more about the 7 Features of a Market-Driven Patient Portal here.
Simplify your architecture
We have all heard many times that less is more and this is good advice to follow when it comes to healthcare IT. Oftentimes, healthcare organizations have the opportunity to make room for innovation by retiring their legacy systems and applications. CIOs need to prioritize their legacy systems based on several factors including but not limited to: costs of maintenance and support, complexity and compliance. Industry consolidation has added to the complexity and increased the number of systems within healthcare organizations. Simplifying the architecture can be challenging but the improved patient care, efficiencies gained and overall results make it well worth it.
The transforming healthcare industry is putting additional strain on healthcare executives to provide high-quality care at an affordable cost. Utilizing technology to improve operational performance and enhance patient care is critical to the success of healthcare organizations. Digital transformation in healthcare is happening as we speak. Healthcare consumers are demanding transparency and convenience – what better way to connect and empower consumers than through the use of SMAC (social, mobile, analytics, cloud).
