The past decade of healthcare IT has been a whirlwind of change and innovation, as the HITECH Act moved $27 billion into the industry starting in 2009. Progress came in fits and starts, but also marched inexorably upward, as health systems poured resources, both human and financial, into the implementation of their electronic health record (EHR) systems as well as the growing number of decision-support and outcome metrics programs that were driven by government, insurance, or institutional mandates.
Throughout it all, finding and retaining top-level talent in the EHR analyst space was and continues to be a challenge for health systems of all sizes. Providing the resources and training necessary to develop an entry-level analyst into an accomplished master can take years at huge cost, and the market to hire established industry veterans is fierce and competitive. This talent shortage led to the explosion of EHR consulting firms that inundate the inboxes of both health system management and analysts alike. Despite their attempt to fill the vacuum, many of the consultants these organizations are offering have been plucked from the health systems themselves, lured with a promise of a bigger paycheck, but many times still lacking the actual experience needed to deliver solutions. Many of these firms are essentially just providing staff augmentation, throwing more hours at a project without the expertise needed to identify and solve the most pressing problems for the health system. The shortage of experienced talent comes at a time when health systems are seeking greater technology support to strengthen their clinical programs. Whether addressing requests for a massive amount of enhancements, quality improvements, or population health management capabilities, internal information technology teams are racing to keep up with these demands, often attempting to fill a void between clinical teams and the executives driving these reforms. The struggle to develop, retain, or acquire top-level talent to meet these requests can lead organizations to avoid big, ambitious projects, instead opting for piecemeal solutions and half measures that never really live up to the desires their clinical teams have to truly improve the care of their patients.
Just as important as top-flight IT staff are clinical operations specialists that can bridge the gaps between those providing care on the frontlines, those in IT, and the executives stewarding this work, all to achieve the goal of providing clinicians and their integrated care teams (e.g. nurses, social workers, or office assistants) the data they need in the right place at the right time. Many a project has been hamstrung by an analyst and a clinical team provider who just aren’t speaking the same language, but the real issue is that we shouldn’t be expecting a shared language. Experts in clinical operations that can be a liaison between the clinical providers and the analysts working to fulfill their requests, are an invaluable resource. They can ensure that all projects have clearly articulated workflow goals that align with process and outcome metrics the teams wish to achieve to deliver better care. They enable a project to be completed faster and better, while also using less resources from both the clinical and IT teams. This is a critically overlooked area for many health systems, where silos around the information technology, clinical arena, and executive teams permeate.
When this race started, there was a time when unlimited resources were thrown at the project to get the EHR running as fast as possible. But as EHR systems have matured, a risk remains that unbridled changes in the way decision support and outcome-driven change occurs can lead to further disorganization if health system leaders haven’t updated the processes and structure of their integrated care teams to enable their frontline providers to organize care more efficiently and effectively. And that risk is multiplied by concerns that the solutions could overwhelm providers and lead to burn-out and disengagement with the interventions themselves. Without the combination of experts in both technical solutions and clinical operations, clinicians are getting a deluge of data that they don’t need instead of the specific data points required to provide proper care.
Wellconnex recognizes the need for integrating both sets of resources into our model of engagement with frontline providers. Our solutions give equal weight to both technical products and the workflow changes that need to be incorporated and accepted by the clinical care teams in order to improve outcomes across the population. Many health systems have spent years throwing more hours from technical analysts at their problems with little progress to show for it. Only with the right combination of technical expertise, clinical operations experience, and care team engagement can they make strides in improving the health and satisfaction of the populations they serve – whether that is managing chronic disease, providing wellness care, or facing the unforeseen challenges that are sure to come as we move out of an “all hands on deck” landscape of a pandemic. The next decade of innovation is going to look vastly different than the last one, and the industry has a major opportunity to shift the landscape and start to identify the processes and structure needed to meet the simple goal that was there all along: timely and proper care given when the patient most needs it.