The key to healthcare’s digital future: Overcoming complexities in integration and adoption

Building digital applications that are not only usable and adoptable but also capable of streamlining efficiencies should be at the core of solutions across industries. In healthcare, these challenges are compounded by several additional layers of complexity. As a 24-hour service, the healthcare system has limited opportunities for system downtime, making maintenance difficult. Data security is paramount, and errors in data mapping carry tangible, potentially catastrophic consequences for patient care.

For these reasons, healthcare has historically been a slow adopter of digital technologies. Apart from the financial burden of implementing a new digital solution in a predominantly government run industry, there are obstacles of adopting new technologies within a healthcare system. In this article, we explore the steps to mitigate these challenges.

The importance of integration and its direct impact on both workflow efficiency and patient safety

The ability to integrate with services is critical in hospital and outpatient settings. Much of a patient workflow exists across multiple platforms, including patient information and health notes, imaging and test results and payment and billing information. The integration of these systems can be clunky and testing due to the nature, complexity, and age of many of the systems. However, a seamless timely integration with single sign-on and intuitive links saves time and frustration in the usability and user-centric design of the solution. Thorough understanding of user workflows and use of these systems is critical in the design phase to map, integrate and test the data between these systems.

Having the latest features and integrations doesn’t always ensure successful adoption. In hospitals, partial adoption can lead to a mix of paper and digital systems, raising the risk of clinical errors and compromising patient care. Solutions without the end user in mind, with a workflow that has not been tried and tested, can increase time to complete a task and create frustration and add to the burden on healthcare workers.

The role of user engagement, solution design, and system capacity

Several key factors influence the adoption rates of new technologies. These can be broadly categorised into user training and engagement, the presence of solution champions, the design and performance of the solution itself including scalability and capacity, and seamless integration with existing systems.

User training and engagement is the most important component in change management. To facilitate user training within work hours while continuing to support a 24-hour service is challenging. In a hospital setting, the nature of hot desking means that users rarely access the same workstation from day to day, or even hour to hour. This fluidity changes how users interact with their computers. Instead of troubleshooting issues or recalling whether something worked previously, the common approach is to move on to the next available workstation and hope it functions better. It could be as simple as a loose cord, but with little ownership over workstations and their maintenance, these issues are not picked up or troubleshot timely.

With the increasing incidence of loose cords and “faulty” machines, confidence in the digital solution and network decreases. This can result in lower levels of user buy-in to new technologies introduced into the workplace. Additionally, if the user has not had sufficient orientation in the software, or perhaps they are in an outpatient setting that is more isolated from user support, easy tasks become onerous in a new unfamiliar system. In a hospital setting, adding technology issues into the mix for junior staff is an extra burden to the stress of their clinical workload.

Poor design can make or break a solution. Which would you rather? Your current process that takes you three clicks, or the new process, which looks nice and takes twenty clicks plus loading time. Without thorough thought into the user flows within and between screens, a process can go from three clicks to twenty very quickly. The impact of this includes poor user adoption, frustrated workers and avoidance of technology. A prime example of this involves two software packages designed for the same outpatient purpose. The first, with a high adoption rate and positive reviews, is more expensive. The second, though cheaper, leaves workers frustrated due to the extra time spent navigating the technology rather than focusing on patient care. A small difference in the design has led to additional time spent doing admin and detracting from patient care.

Finally, having a solution that is designed for the capacity of the actual workforce and supports the demands on the system is invaluable. Long loading times, connectivity issues and volume overloads all increase frustration and reduces confidence in the system, leading to a decrease in satisfaction and adoption rates.

There are no perfect solutions, however, there are steps that can be taken when introducing technology into these areas to help navigate the complexities that define the healthcare industry. User-centric design, the priorities of the workforce, seamless integrations and capacity to support the workforce are key factors and will aid in the overall adoption of the solution.