Healthcare digitalization: Moving towards aligned, harmonized care
As healthcare organizations worldwide strive for more digitalization, they face unique obstacles in transitioning towards new care models and integrating digital solutions.
A study by IDC Research, the U.S. Healthcare Provider Technology and Connected Health Survey, focuses on the role of clinical decision support (CDS) solutions across the care continuum as health leaders aim to align clinical teams and drive consistency. The survey also provides insights into of the challenges healthcare organizations encounter during their digital transformation journey and their adaptation strategies.
The importance of aligned care and the clinician experience
When care is aligned across clinical teams, it can significantly impact patient outcomes and worker experience through better team judgment, more consistent decision-making, and increased staff satisfaction. Unwanted variations in care delivery lead to errors, elevated risks to patient safety, prolonged hospital stays, and spiraling costs. This can also breeds dissatisfaction among patients and clinicians, many of whom feel burdened by paperwork, staff shortages, stringent requirements, and poorly designed healthcare management systems.
To deliver aligned care, the report suggests health leaders can consider creating a shared foundation of trust in clinical effectiveness solutions, providing efficient access to trusted evidence-based information at the point-of-care.
Considerations for healthcare leaders when looking towards digital transformation
Findings from the IDC research indicate that healthcare providers are prioritizing goals related to enhancing patient outcomes while addressing larger systemic issues to mitigate unwarranted care variations. However, the implementation of clinical effectiveness solutions cannot improve patient care on their own. These solutions must be designed to integrate seamlessly with existing workflows, offering consistent, evidence-based clinical information.
Five significant strategic business goals for healthcare providers
The study identifies key considerations and goals leaders have in mind as they integrating solutions into their current workflows.
- Quality improvement (34.5%)
- Improved patient safety (32.3%)
- Medical equity, diversity, inclusion, and cultural competency (30.3%)
- Enhanced patient experience (29.0%)
- Improved access to care (27.4%)
For the enhancement of consistent care, it's crucial that solutions are capable of scaling end-to-end across care teams and patient journeys. In addition to CDS, these solutions can also include drug referential information and patient engagement. As new data, regulations, and research continues to emerge, having trustworthy, reliable healthcare information and technology at the hands of clinicians will only become more crucial in order to achieve these key goals.
How effective clinical solutions can impact healthcare organizations
The Covid-19 pandemic has made it clear that technology plays a vital role in healthcare, and many organizations are now recalibrating their future development roadmaps to include more digital technologies, automate workflows, and incorporate greater use of virtual care capabilities.
This transformation has led to increased use of advanced analytics and AI-driven solutions, fostering innovation and generating better predictive models and capabilities. Early disease detection, virtual triage, care automation, symptom checkers, and patient engagement have significantly benefited from improved analytics and clinical decision support.
Additionally, providers now face new disruptions, including workforce shortages, inflation, supply chain constraints, reduced budgets, and depleted resources. The IDC report emphasizes that strategic response to these challenges is investment in workflow and clinical effectiveness solutions that can yield tangible benefits, such as:
- Decreased unwanted variability and patient harm
- Improved care coordination and clinical collaboration
- Quicker, evidence-based decisions at the point of care
- Streamlined clinical workflows and system usability
- Integrations with electronic health records (EHRs)with cross-platform mobility
- Elevated patient experiences across the continuum of care
With evidence-based solutions on hand, health leaders can face their digital transformation challenges and move towards their goals of providing consistent care, improved patient outcomes, and an enhanced patient journey.
Read the full report from IDC and to learn how Wolters Kluwer supports healthcare digital transformation with trusted, aligned clinical effectiveness solutions.