ExecutiveBiz blog has an excellent article on how to grow Healthcare IT business. The post author, JD Kathuria, highlights 26 best practices for government contractors. I think these points apply to anyone working in the health care IT industry.
This is the quick summary.
- Recognize healthcare IT as more than an IT opportunity.
- Maintain specific focus on each and every customer.
- Help your team see the larger picture.
- Speak the language of your customers.
- Participate in the standards-setting conversation.
- Broaden your vision of potential health IT partners.
- Keep in mind that web based-information technologies are the future.
- Develop domain expertise capability.
- Proactively bring innovation to the table.
- View yourself as long-term partner.
- Demonstrate a multidisciplinary approach to technology.
- Embrace open source as the wave of the future.
- Wear two hats — as a taxpayer and investment collaborator.
- Put yourself in the beneficiary’s shoes.
- Keep in mind medical records aren’t the only game in town.
- Healthcare IT isn’t just about the providers.
- Get to know the big players.
- Offer a combination of technologies. It’s critical to bring the power of a combination of technologies — information management, services, and security — forward, in order to support customer mission and goals.
- Leverage commercial best practices. We’re likely to see a drive toward adoption of commercial best practices within both commercial and government spaces. There will also be more data sharing among government agencies whose missions are interconnected.
- Focus on cybersecurity. Whatever the outcome with healthcare reform legislation, it’s undeniable that security will play an important role in the implementation of healthcare reform as well as in current initiatives being undertaken by federal agencies.
- Look to other industries. Cybersecurity, cloud computing, and identity management — all critical to the healthcare IT conversation —are used in other industries, such as the financial community. Look to those industries for best practices.
- Draw on expertise from commercial and global markets. Just being a government healthcare contractor isn’t enough to stay competitive. Commercial, government, and global healthcare practices are all interrelated. Each has similar problems. Learn about them for crossover purposes.
- Look beyond hardware or software affiliations. System integrators will continue to play a critical role in bringing “best of market” solutions to government clients. Don’t let proposed solutions be determined first and foremost by hardware or software affiliations, however.
- Get the sociology right. In many ways, the technology aspect of healthcare IT is easy; much harder is the sociology of it. Which means that approaching an EHR or HIE project as a purely technology project will sow the “seeds of failure.”
- Remember the end goal. Remember the ultimate mission isn’t a technological solution; it’s to improve healthcare and lower costs. That’s the fundamental outcome that needs to emerge from electronic health records.
- Stay actively involved. It’s not enough to preside over a project. You have to stay actively involved in its implementation and in customer reaction. Also be sure to have on-the-ground intelligence. You need people you can trust to deliver good news and the bad.
Some of the points really resonated with me. Especially in small primary care practices where technology is sold as if it will cure them of all ills.
24. Get the sociology right. In many ways, the technology aspect of healthcare IT is easy; much harder is the sociology of it. Which means that approaching an EHR or HIE project as a purely technology project will sow the “seeds of failure.”
You need to understand all the stakeholders and their motivations. Not everybody is comfortable with technology, no matter how simple it is. You have to work with the office staff and physicians and show real benefits of technology to their daily jobs.
25. Remember the end goal. Remember the ultimate mission isn’t a technological solution; it’s to improve healthcare and lower costs. That’s the fundamental outcome that needs to emerge from electronic health records.
Absolutely! Installing an EHR or HIS is not going to solve all problems. Processes around EHR has to evolve to make everyone efficient. Just capturing data is not enough. EHR has to work with the office staff to make sure their goals are acheived. No matter what meaningful use criteria says, if the patients are not satisfied, we would have failed.
Tags: EHR, Healthcare IT