Leveraging Technology To Achieve Balance In Healthcare

Published June 10, 2024

Today’s healthcare industry faces unprecedented pressure, as hospitals deal with fewer staff, an increase in patient acuity, changing regulations and shifting payment models. In one recent survey, nearly two-thirds of physicians reported signs of burnout. 

To thrive in such an environment, healthcare providers must harness technology to neutralize these pressures. Using best-in-class, paradigm-shifting technology to its fullest capabilities—and in collaboration with other healthcare partners–is a game changer for many hospitals, allowing them to reduce errors and optimize organizational outcomes. 

Researchers at Harvard and McKinsey have found that effectively using automation and analytics alone could save the American healthcare industry up to $360 billion. Here’s a look at five ways that innovative tech solutions can empower high-performance community-based healthcare providers to transform the patient experience and do more with less. 

1. Automating administrative processes
   From coordinating follow-up appointments to filling out insurance paperwork, there are seemingly endless low-skill administrative tasks throughout the healthcare system. Physicians spend an average of more than 15 hours per week on paperwork and administration, according to Medscape. Redundant administrative work such as entering the same information into multiple siloed systems takes far too much time in an already stressed system.

   Using technology to automate this type of work can save time and minimize mistakes. It can also free up doctors to spend more time and energy interacting with patients and nurses to work at the highest level of their license, improving both experience and outcomes for patients.

2. Streamlining transitions
   The disconnect between providers at various stages of a care journey is a systemic problem within today’s healthcare industry. The transition of patients from one care facility, such as a hospital, to another, such as a skilled nursing center, has long represented a pain point for care providers. It has historically required volumes of paperwork and several rounds of manual work. A better, technology enabled approach with connected providers allows for integrated care coordination and accessible patient data. 

   Health care providers have come a long way in creating more portable medical files, but that means that doctors may find themselves with a new patient that comes with reams of data. Rather than reading through large, dense files, physicians can leverage artificial intelligence to quickly highlight the most relevant, actionable data they need in each specific situation. This enables more frictionless transitions, which means faster care for patients and fewer mistakes.

3. Identifying patient risk
   AI can also help identify potential risks, allowing medical care providers to put protocols in place to mitigate them. For example, AI can look at data and use predictive capabilities to determine which patients are most at risk for readmission or a longer-than-average stay. 

   Healthcare providers can then use such information to deliver real-time, actionable information to care managers or downstream network providers to use to develop more personalized treatment plans.  

4. Leaning into practitioner strengths
   Purpose-built, intelligent systems, allow specialists, nurses, and other doctors to more quickly use technology for discrete tasks, rather than working in a system that’s built to serve everyone. A physician, for example, requires a different workflow than a nursing assistant of the floor of a skilled nursing facility or a wellness coordinator at a senior living community.

   In order to drive efficiencies, of course, these systems must be inter-operable and “talk to each other,” so that each user can see the information that’s relevant to their work and decision-making.

5. Standardizing care protocols
   Especially as value-based care becomes more common place, it’s important for care providers to have evidence-based, standardized protocols directing their care. Rather than relying on the varying expertise or heterogenous education of individuals doctors, such consistency of care is not only good for patients, but it’s operationally more efficient.

   A systemized approach to care can also improve relationships between acute- and post-acute partners, since both sides will know exactly where a patient is in their care journey, and understand how to prepare them for the next step.  

The healthcare industry continues to face many challenges, but forward-thinking organizations recognize the power of technology to combat them head on. As technology continues to improve and advance, so does the opportunity for medical providers to use it at scale to improve both business operations and patient outcomes.