Mobility has been causing quite a stir in the healthcare industry for a considerable time now. It is believed to be a solution that will boost productivity, increase efficiency, and reduce burden. These advantages were sufficient for hospitals to start embracing mobility solutions; however, not all of them were successful in developing and implementing a solution.
While some failed in developing an effective solution, others could not implement it successfully because of reluctant employees and patients. A careful analysis of such situations has given a meaningful insight on why hospitals failed and in majority of the cases, it can be attributed to a lack of cohesive strategy. Here, we will discuss the considerations that play a vital role in success of mobility solutions in healthcare industry.
Strategy with a Goal
Just like all business interactions, a clinical mobility solution has to be adopted with a goal in mind. It is very important to have a clear understanding of what you want to achieve and how do you want to go about it. A basic plan that would come to your mind would typically include budget and approach. However, when you create a plan, you need to think through every possible detail including how will nursing staff benefit? Will it be easy to use? Will it really reduce workload?
A good strategy will have all these points taken care of and additionally, will also align these points to the ultimate expectation that you will have from the mobility solution.
Process and Requirements
A common reason for failure is that hospitals fail to lay out a process with definite steps and understand the core infrastructural requirements. Laying out a process entails how the design and development will work, how it will be implemented, who will take care of what, etc. All this needs to be considered along with the investment constraints and approving authority.
Having a good process with clear steps in place help in measuring the progress, understanding the loopholes, and establishing good security protocols. On the other hand, knowing the infrastructure requirements will help you implement solution without glitches and be prepared with what is needed.
Roll-Out in Phases
The way to implement any organization-wide solution is to implement it in phases. This has a lot of advantages. In our case where a clinical mobility solution needs to be implemented, start with a specific department of your hospital (maybe a department where patients are less). This will help you identify issues and also resolve them before implementing it in other departments.
Phase-wise implementation can help you track bugs, utility issues, and also identify training points. While tracking bugs at a small scale will help you resolve them, understanding utility issues can save you from massive rework. In terms of training, you can easily figure out the points where your company would require involving a third-party or an internal trainer to handhold your employees.
Transition and Evolve
To reap the benefits of all the hard work that has gone in creating and implementing a clinical mobility strategy, you need to constantly transition and evolve. This means that you should be ready to change in case there is a solution that is more efficient or vital. A simple example can be to adopt solutions that are scalable and can meet your organization’s expansion plans.
It can also mean to be ready for massive transitions like how computer-based solutions had to be reworked on to make them ready for smartphones and other devices. This willingness to be ready will help hospitals and other clinics be future-ready.
If you are an organization with experience in clinical mobility solutions, then make sure that you share your experiences with our readers.
