Three Sides Of The Technology Triangle

By Monica E. Oss, Chief Executive Officer, OPEN MINDS

In health and human services, technology has moved out of the finance department with its focus on compliance and billing. Now, technology is an integral part of the strategy of most organizations—with core elements like analytics, medical records, consumer engagement, population health, financial management, human resource information systems, and more (see its consumers, its team members, and its financial sustainability. Technology is now an integral tool in improving the consumer experience. It is integral to the employee experience.

How to develop a strategy for technology that supports the strategic aims was the focus of the session, Achieving Organizational Excellence With Technology, led by Mark Belles, Chief Executive Officer of ContinuumCloud. He spoke to the improvements in organizational performance that are possible with a technology strategy focused on the technology user experience and with technology integrated in a platform that allows consolidated data for performance management. His advice for executive teams is to look at three critical sides to “the tech triangle”—the consumer experience, the employee experience, and operational management.

The consumer experience—Consumer experience (and consumer engagement) have become more important to consumers—and to health plans—over the past years. Consumers have come to expect convenient, accessible, and consumer-centric health care services. And, health plans are focused on making those convenient, accessible, and culturally appropriate services available to their members in order to improve their own reputation and member retention.

Having technology to measure and manage consumer experience is essential. Eighty-two percent of clinical professionals of specialty provider organizations rated the client experience in their organization as “good” or “excellent”. High on the list for improving that experience were consumer engagement and mobile-friendly technology.

Improving employee experience and productivity—Technology also has a key role in improving the satisfaction of the workforce—particularly by eliminating redundant work. Mr. Belles cited the research that found for physicians using an electronic health record (EHR), every 1% improvement in satisfaction with the platform decreased their odds of burnout by 3%. According to human resource executives of specialty provider organizations, where organizations are struggling with improving employee experience is in employee engagement strategy (72%), recruiting (63%), communications (50%), and mobile capabilities (35%). To address these issues, Mr. Belles recommended investing in solutions that streamline workflows, eliminate redundancies, and automate data entry in their strategy.

Operational management—The processes, systems, and workflows at any organization are the ones that keep the business running and connect the employee and consumer experiences into meaningful performance and outcomes. Recent surveys of specialty provider organization executive teams found that the greatest areas of challenge for management optimization are workflow automation (60%), followed by documentation processes (46%), and using reports to make operational improvements (37%).

Executive teams will find their future success and sustainability will depend on the choices they make and the approaches they take with technology. For more on technology strategy, check out these great resources from The OPEN MINDS Industry Library.