How to Manage Technology Changes in the Healthcare Industry

In 2024, healthcare organizations must constantly evaluate new technology and decide what’s a fleeting trend versus the next best practice. With technology evolving rapidly, it can be difficult for providers to keep up. But staying resistant to change can lead to severe consequences, including decreased patient satisfaction, less take-home pay, and extreme burnout. In this article, we’ll explore how to identify when it’s time to make some changes and how to transition to new systems and processes as seamlessly as possible.

 

Should You Incorporate New Technology at Your Practice?

Incorporating new technology into a healthcare system is a significant decision. Chances are, you’re already using some combination of electronic health records, practice management tools, billing software, and IT solutions to keep your practice running like a well-oiled machine. But if that machine starts to break down, avoiding making a change can have serious repercussions. Here are some signs it may be time to shift to evaluate your current tech stack:

You're experiencing burnout.

While technology can't solve all your problems, the right tools should make your job easier, not harder. Burnout may not be avoidable altogether, but software can certainly help lighten the load. The right technology can help foster a healthier workplace environment overall.

Your practice isn’t as profitable as it once was.

Many things can contribute to financial instability at your medical practice, from coding errors to a high volume of self-pay patients. Your billing software should make it easy to get a bird's eye view of what’s happening at your practice and help you identify potential problems.

Your patient's satisfaction is low or declining.

Neglecting to incorporate advanced technology to enhance the patient experience may stifle the growth of your practice. Efficient solutions such as patient portals and apps for scheduling, streamlined check-in processes for lower wait times, online bill pay for easy payment processing, and telemedicine features are must-haves.

These are all valid reasons signaling it’s time to consider changing your technology solutions. But even when you know it’s necessary, you may feel resistance to change. But why does this happen? Understanding this resistance is the first step towards managing it, and that’s exactly what we’ll explore next.

Understanding the Barriers to Change in Healthcare

Change, while often beneficial, is seldom easy. This holds especially true in the healthcare industry. At Benchmark Solutions, we tend to hear the same themes arise when current or prospective clients mention adopting new technology: the rapid pace of technological advancements, scarce resources, and the complex process of switching systems are all barriers to change within the healthcare industry.

Technology Changes Rapidly

In today’s world, technology is evolving at an unprecedented pace. But what does this rapid pace of change mean for healthcare workers and providers?

To start, keeping up with every new development can be challenging and lead to uncertainty. Just as you become comfortable with one system, a more advanced solution emerges. This constant need for adaptation can lead to change fatigue, where staff become overwhelmed and resistant to further change.

Resources May Be Scarce

In an ideal world, implementing change would be straightforward. However, barriers, like limited resources and financial constraints, can hinder the process. Upgrading to a new system or implementing new technology often requires a substantial time and financial investment. Balancing patient care demands while implementing new workflows can be challenging with a limited team.

Switching Systems Is Intimidating

For many healthcare practices, switching to a new healthcare system without assistance can be daunting, from selecting the right solution to ensuring a seamless transition. 

One of the first challenges is the sheer number of options available. With a plethora of technology solutions in the market, it can be difficult to determine which one is the best fit for your practice. Whether it’s one person or a panel making the final call, narrowing down the options in the first place involves a lot of work.

Data migration poses another challenge. Transitioning from one system to another often involves transferring a significant amount of data. This can be a complex and time-consuming process — we never want that to feel like the main thing that’s holding you back, so we walk all our new clients through a step-by-step data collection process. If you are interested in receiving more personalized support, our experts are always here for anything you need and can even take on the data migration portion of the move from start to finish.

And finally, staff training can also feel overwhelming. Implementing a new system requires staff to learn new skills and adapt to new workflows all while providing time-sensitive health services.

At Benchmark Solutions, you don’t have to face this dilemma alone. We understand the challenges involved so we always offer dedicated one-on-one support every step of the way.

Overcoming Resistance to Change in Healthcare

Even though you may experience some hiccups along the way, if you think it’s time to make a change, there are steps you can take to ensure a smooth transition. With the right strategies and team of experts to support you, you can overcome resistance to change, paving the way for successful technology implementation in your healthcare practice.

Know What You Need

The first step to overcoming resistance to change is understanding exactly what you need from your new technology solution. This involves identifying the pain points with your current system and creating a wishlist of desired features.

For example, if your staff struggles with a slow, cumbersome system, speed and user-friendliness might be at the top of your wishlist. Or, if your current system lacks certain time-saving workflows or automations, these could be key features to look for in a new solution.

Armed with this knowledge, you can begin researching and evaluating different technology solutions. If you’re in the market for a PM or EHR system, we’ve put together buyers’ guides that may be helpful to peruse.

Plan and Prepare

Once you know what you need, it’s time to plan and prepare for change. Start by auditing where all your data is currently stored. What needs to be kept? What might need to be cleaned before transitioning? Once you have a solid inventory of what you’ll be working with, your vendor should be able to help you put together a data migration plan.

Involve Your Employees

By involving your employees in decision-making processes, you foster a culture where organizational changes are viewed as positive rather than punitive. This builds a resilient workforce that can effectively navigate change and minimize employee stress. Plus, when employees are appropriately involved from the beginning, you can reduce time spent in training as they’ll likely already have some familiarity with their new software at rollout.

Monitor and Adapt

And finally, change gets you nowhere if you don’t routinely audit how things are going. Regular monitoring and evaluation can help identify any issues early on. This allows you to make necessary adjustments and ensure your new tech fulfills its purpose. You might want to consider pulling reports as frequently as once a week and reviewing them with your team so you can work together to identify and fix any kinks. As you start to feel more comfortable with your new technology, you can adjust reporting frequency.

Benchmark Solutions Is Here to Help You Adopt a New Healthcare System

While the barriers to change can be daunting, they are not insurmountable. New technology could be what your practice needs to become more profitable and efficient — and we’ll be with you every step of the way. Benchmark Solutions partners with healthcare organizations to implement EHR, PM, billing systems, and IT solutions so your practice can flourish. We understand that managing change can feel overwhelming, and that’s why each one of our clients has a dedicated account representative who will be available throughout onboarding.

Let Us Show You How Easy It Can Be