Modernizing clinical workflows: The IT leader’s underleveraged opportunity to reduce clinician burnout

Health systems are now tasking their IT leadership with developing a more strategic approach. Many technology leaders state that they are working toward a strategic roadmap of solutions that improves efficiency, reduces redundancies, and manages cost. While LHS agree they need solutions to improve integration and facilitate seamless care, many are still early in their journey. The work ahead is to streamline, consolidate, and focus on tools that clinicians value most.

To this end, several LHS are performing full system audits with the goals of consolidating and restructuring their tech investments. While in principle many systems would prefer one platform or partner to meet multiple needs, they report difficulty identifying partners that meet a variety of needs without extensive customization. CIOs often feel they must make a trade-off and choose between a single platform that meets most needs and multiple platforms that meet all needs. Partners must recognize this tension; those with more comprehensive solutions and offerings are likely to have a market advantage.

An updated IT governanace structure should support strategy

The CIO role previously emphasized the ability to attract, hire, and retain talent. But as organizational needs have shifted to increasly necessitate CIO contribution to systemwide strategy, the role has evolved. Alongside this trend, we also see a proliferation of IT-related C-level roles and titles (e.g., CMIO/CNIO/CDO/CISO/CAO/CTO) to address new technological challenges and opportunities. While any individual role might make sense for a system’s unique needs, when taken as a whole, systems are struggling to define who is accountable for what. Accordingly, the issue of streamlining clinician workflows might seem like a challenge that multiple IT leaders could address. As a result, all too often no one feels accountable to address it.

But inevitably, governance and accountability structures inevitably impact decisionmaking, which then influences stakeholder engagement when it comes to workflows and operationalizing new investments. It’s therefore more important than ever to clarify which IT leaders are responsible for which decisions, and who has seats at which leadership tables. Health systems recognize how important governance is, and it is important to continue updating structures and process in this rapidly evolving area of leadership.

Engaging care team in the process facilitates greater success

All too often health system executive strategy is well-intentioned in principle yet disconnected from clinical operations in practice. While it is relatively common to involve multidisciplinary teams in the development of clinical pathways or the purchase of a new piece of equipment, it’s less common to do so with technology workflows and applications. This results in digital strategies — and specific solutions and workflows — that do not fully align with current system capabilities or providers’ preferences. Further, given the challenges many LHS have faced with prior tech rollouts, it’s increasingly difficult to achieve clinician buy-in for new solutions.

This needs to change.

LHS who do this well and consistently highlight a few best practices. First, they seek out and incorporate clinical leadership and clinician perspectives as they set overall digital strategy and define decision-making processes. This inclusive style of engagement facilitates more successful adoption and implementation of individual digital tools down the road.

Next, they consult clinical staff and administrative teams in the design, piloting, and/or testing of applications, processes, and workflows. This engagement level occurs at each step of the process, as it is often the smaller details that can undo a thoughtfully laid out strategy. Anything that requires additional learning time, more clicks in a workflow, or new processes is often (and reasonably) met with resistance. Identifying and addressing these issues earlier increases the likelihood of adoption.

Lastly, successful systems don’t stop engagement with the initial rollout but continue to involve a multidisciplinary team over time. Additional clinical input is needed when scaling technology solutions across the organization.

Engaging a multidisciplinary care team at every step of the process sounds simple in theory but is undoubtedly challenging in practice. Yet garnering buy-in is essential to effectively modernize clinical workflows.

While securing care team feedback solves much of the equation, IT leaders also need to be mindful of the impact of tech solutions on another key stakeholder: patients.

Optimizing tools for both clinicians and patients further elevates workflows

LHS increasingly recognize they need a robust digital health strategy that responds to consumer demands and enables them to remain competitive as disruptors continue to enter the space. However, it can be difficult for systems to execute a strategy that is both integrated into the system’s network and easy for patients to navigate.

Yet the fact remains — IT leaders need to create digital solutions that meet the needs of clinicians as well as patients.

Patient-facing solutions need to be intuitive, interoperable, and seamlessly integrated across provider settings. Patients expect this much out of their digital engagement with health systems. Partners who can deliver on optimizing solutions for care team workflows and patient engagement will have the clear advantage over their competitors.

Considering each patient-facing app or digital touchpoint from the perspective of the patient should be an integral step in systemwide audits of technology solutions and a non-negotiable in assessing vendor capabilities.