Healthcare IT Road Map to the Future: Digital Paper, Social Media, and the Cloud

by Andrew Spottswood, senior technology consultant and manager with TROI IT Solutions

Since moving to Seattle two years ago, my wife and I love to take road trips to explore the diverse beauty of the Pacific Northwest.  One weekend last summer I drove us to Whidbey Island to go camping.  On our way home, since we had never been there before and it was an exceptionally gorgeous day, we drove around for hours to explore the island.  Then suddenly, as if orchestrated, my three-year-old threw a hunger tantrum, a tire went flat, my cell phone died, and I realized I didn’t know where we were.  That gut-wrenching, helpless feeling overwhelmed me as I grinned and said to my wife, “Don’t worry, we’ll be fine!”  I suppose I could have planned better to avoid that situation, but I can also give you some great excuses why I wanted to enjoy the day instead.

A Road Map for Healthcare IT really isn’t much different from what I went through that weekend.  Better planning and insight could have mitigated my show-stopper situation.  The role of IT in your health center is destined to grow, so building a plan that not only properly leverages technology within your budget, but also can react to new requirements or unforeseen circumstances, becomes a lofty goal. With IT planning in mind, I want to explore some new technologies and how they could fit into the health eco-system to help support an IT Road Map’s goals.

Reliability. As efficiency drives innovation, technology’s burden to remain available will constantly rise.  The entire patient workflow is now dependent upon many pieces of equipment not only staying online, but constantly communicating to the core systems.  Mission-critical components are built with redundancy and fail-over options more than ever to meet these business continuity requirements, and back office automation keeps systems in check with little to no maintenance costs.  On-premise equipment coupled with cloud based technologies are making it easier and more affordable than ever to take advantage of these technologies which allow systems to communicate and take over in case of a system failure.

Efficiency. Streamlining processes and building a repeatable workflow helps drive efficiency and add patient visits to the schedule.  Each step in the workflow can be scrutinized, and technology is a huge driver of innovation to reduce road blocks and integrate systems for a quicker, more patient-focused experience.  Tim Cook, new CEO of Apple, announced on October 4^th that 80% of the top hospitals in the US are either testing or deploying the iPad tablet computers.   Digital paper and online reader technology is already replacing books, newspapers, and magazines at an alarming rate.  More than a few hospitals have figured out that tablets properly integrated into the workflow can make providers more efficient and patients happier.

Collaboration. The most recent innovation is happening in collaboration, both internally and externally to organizations.  Office 365 and Google Docs allow subscribers to collaborate on documents and spreadsheets anywhere in the world - in real time.  Dozens of versions of a document sent back and forth between co-workers may become something we laugh about years from now.  Additionally, discussion around health based social media collaboration is heating up.  Patients want fast, reliable information through their provider network, so collaborative websites that enable secured communication are being built.  The jury is out on how to bill for and accurately diagnose over FysicianBOOK, but my money is on someone figuring that out one day (really, if you figure it out, I’ll give you money).

These new technologies will never be the key to operational bliss at your clinic, but if used properly they can play major roles in productivity and improved patient care.  Your Technology Plan should dictate what technology is implemented and become a prioritized checklist for how to realize your operational goals. Just as a list reminding to pack snack food, bring my cell phone charger, check tire pressure, and buy a map could have saved my weekend, taking the time to plan could not only help avoid disaster but also make the whole experience enjoyable for everyone.