Five ways health leaders can address silos in healthcare

2. Aligned communications for a more patient-centric experience

With aligned communications, teams can work together to build a more patient-centric process. One of the panelists shared how their team refocused on the patient experience, intentionally built more structure, and “de-implemented” the technology element when needed. This created a culture where the entire care team comes to the bedside and discusses treatments and tests with the patient and family, as well as proactively thinking about the discharge plan.

Ultimately, if leaders aren’t communicating with each other, system-wide change is nearly impossible. Even in federated systems where data and processes are more individualized among care sites, leaders can discuss what’s working at different sites and identify best practices or new processes.

For example, how is care management being communicated? Are managers and coordinators integrating to avoid silos between acute and ambulatory care management? Are patient education strategies considering the ways care teams will use content within workflows and how patients can access it at home? What considerations are needed for different site locations? Staying connected to local leaders who can report upwards on specific site characteristics can be helpful in creating a shared organizational vision and strategy that still supports and respects those unique cultures.

3. Optimizing resources for more efficient care

As a shared vision is identified, leaders can look for opportunities to become more financially sustainable across teams and share best practices and resources. Sometimes the answer isn’t more resources, it’s just using current ones more efficiently. One panelist discussed how emergency department (ED) providers were underutilized while they waited for a patient to be assigned an available bed. The department changed to vertical strategies so more patients could be seen by available providers and get care started—and even completed—before a bed is made available.

Conversations around resourcing will often bounce between quality, efficiency, and cost, and whether investing in tools is worth initial poor margins for longer-term financial savings and improving staff burnout. At what point will financial savings impact outcomes or the patient experience? How can better care processes lead to improved financial performance, such as reduced length of stay and fewer readmissions?

4. Identify opportunities for technology integrations

Breaking down silos includes technology integrations and leveraging interconnecting systems for better data transfer and information sharing. Technology can be an enabler to better care—harnessing the EHR as a central component of care can help teams stay aligned on patient health information, centralized evidence, patient education resources, clinical and medication policies, and treatment plans. One panelist said her team was piloting a secure chat feature within Epic so doctors can alert nursing teams when they will be on a floor.

Ultimately, as another panelist pointed out, it’s important to define the problem before talking about solutions. This is especially important as artificial intelligence (AI) and digital strategies mature; organizations need a coordinated approach to technology selection and implementation. Solutions are constantly coming to market, and leaders need to question whether they’re in line with strategic plans. Are there key parts of our strategy that could benefit from AI-enabled tools? What does the screening process look like? How can leaders bring people together to identify tools that can benefit multiple stakeholders and teams, instead of individual groups getting excited and purchasing in a vacuum?

It's also key to know how solutions can augment care teams to make their job easier, but also that not every technology will be the right fit for every scenario. For example, the most experienced nurse who has done patient assessments their entire career may have challenges learning ambient charting. Again, this goes back to having the right stakeholders in early conversations to understand onboarding challenges or the best way to create added value for teams.

5. Harness data for better insights and decisions

Enterprise-wide tools can generate enterprise-wide data and analytics, help identify opportunities to improve performance, find workflow efficiencies, and address quality improvement needs. The EHR provides a centralized resource to gather data and trends from systems to identify gaps in care and opportunities for improvement. It can also help answer key questions: What are some rising health trends? Are certain patient populations experiencing particular gaps in care? Do certain engagement tactics help patients address their own questions and lead to fewer readmissions or calls to nursing staff? Data can help inform best practices—and loop back up to informing the leadership and the strategic plan.

Additionally, how are you measuring the effectiveness of any systemic changes or technology implementations? One panelist said they have a multidisciplinary application rationalization committee that has the goal not to stymie progress but to ensure a demonstrable return on investment.

The importance of uniting against external headwinds

Healthcare organizations continue to face external pressures and volatile circumstances. Questions about tariffs, supply chains, Medicare funds, and evolving AI tools dominate news cycles and can lead to challenging internal conversations about the best ways to navigate these variables. These massive and complex questions can’t be addressed by individual groups or teams. Uniting leaders across and even between health systems can create a collaborative environment where complex challenges can be addressed more systemically and with different stakeholders and patient experiences in mind.

These uniting conversations and problem-solving opportunities can create a more sustainable foundation for weathering future challenges and identifying the next systemic challenge to tackle. Breaking down silos with a systemic lens can help leaders address more than one issue at a time and create a more sustainable future for care teams and patients.

Explore how systems thinking can support better team-based care with evidence as the foundation. Download the UpToDate Point of Care Report below and watch our full Becker’s webinar conversation.