Amidst pressures and confusion from changing meaningful use regulations and vendor market transitions, the healthcare industry continues to compete for a limited number of qualified health information technology (HIT) professionals. As existing HIT hires assist with electronic health record (EHR) system optimizations, managing the recent ICD-10 transition and various other queries throughout the day (and at all hours of the night), they can experience professional burnout.
IT issues also impact the performance of time-strapped physicians, 81 percent of whom report that they are overextended or at full capacity, according to a survey of 20,088 physicians conducted by The Physicians Foundation.[1]
Physician and IT staff fatigue isn't the only pressing issue. HIT anxiety can also negatively influence care quality and safety; morale and employee engagement; and chief information officer (CIO) turnover. All of these repercussions can increase costs in a time when hospitals are facing greater financial risk over their expenditures than ever before. However, hospitals can help avoid these consequences by outsourcing HIT services on a project basis and/or for day-to-day operations, such as help desk technical support. More efficient use of limited HIT-professional resources is a growing trend among organizations that want to protect the integrity of mission-critical systems and data and enable providers and existing IT staff to focus on initiatives that improve reimbursement under value-based payment models.
The HIT-problem ripple effect
In the 2015 HIMSS Leadership Survey[2], nearly three-quarters of respondents indicated consumer/patient considerations, like patient engagement, satisfaction and quality of care, would significantly impact healthcare organizations' strategic efforts over the next two years. Each day, HIT professionals provide data, information, insight and tools that support clinicians with patient care delivery. If IT staff is overburdened, clinicians and healthcare business professionals may be unable to access the information they need, or information may be inaccurate or improperly formatted. Users will no longer have the HIT tools and data needed to effectively and efficiently care for patients, and confidence in the EHR-data integrity suffers.
Within the same HIMSS Leadership Survey, only one-third of respondents indicated a high degree of agreement with the statement "the medical staff supports the view that IT is critical to their success," and only 35 percent indicated high agreement with the statement that "the medical staff believes IT can positively impact patient care/clinical outcomes." Provider support and engagement are priorities for IT-project buy-in across an organization.
If end users feel marginalized or abandoned, they will view the IT department as an adversary versus an advocate. Instead of supporting IT department programs, they may set up roadblocks, withdraw or refuse to cooperate.
Lastly, when IT initiatives face such roadblocks, create unexpected costs or require a total system "rip-and-replace," healthcare CIOs face numerous complaints or blame from C-suite colleagues and department directors, which can lead to frequent turnover at this critical position. To avoid this situation, CIOs should lead the change in focus of projects from IT specific to organization-wide. Doing so brings key stakeholders to the table early and switches the focus from IT as the driver of the project to IT playing a supportive role. This shift helps IT maintain positive relationships within the organization, which are necessary to gain understanding, cooperation and support across a healthcare organization for effective change.
Gaining an outside helping hand
One strategy to meet healthcare organizations' IT staffing needs is to outsource or gain advisory services from an external company. Three-quarters of healthcare providers outsource at least some of their IT staffing needs to a vendor or consultant rather than hiring the workers directly, according to the latest HIMSS Annual Workforce Survey.[3]
Organizations lacking the time for a self-guided, do-it-yourself approach may choose an external consultant to perform a needs assessment, develop a plan and orchestrate the detailed EHR system performance evaluation process. Doing so accelerates evidence-based decision making on the opportunities and constraints of EHR system fixes, upgrades, workflow re-engineering and selection of a new EHR system.
The workforce survey results also revealed that the HIT help desk is one of the top hiring areas for healthcare providers. With HIT departments overwhelmed by challenges of time, training, labor and tools, this hiring trend is no surprise. For any size provider organizations, outsourcing the help desk function provides end users with 24/7 support and sustains high levels of satisfaction. Among the four advantages to outsourcing the help desk are:
· Time: Outsourcing offers a solution for time-strapped IT departments that lack the time required to plan, implement, manage and monitor a help desk function. IT staff can then focus attention on higher priority, more complex queries. By taking control of minor system issues, the outsourced help desk allows staff IT analysts to focus on high-level projects and programs.
· Staffing: Outsourcing the help desk function saves IT departments from having to continuously recruit, hire, train and retain an already limited workforce population of IT professionals.
· Accountability: Outsourcing the help desk offers one-stop accountability to end users, who can call a single number to access answers, resolve problems and gain IT knowledge and education.
· Cost: Help desk services is an area where costs can fluctuate significantly based on call volume, application changes, staff turnover and service-level agreements (SLAs) maintenance. One of the most significant areas of cost and SLA issues is staff turnover and training, which can also be time consuming and fluctuate greatly. Outsourcing can eliminate this cost variation while keeping SLAs consistent.
Experience and insight
Today's healthcare organizations' IT staffs are already overburdened with daily operations, updates and maintenance. An experienced, objective third-party advisor can offer years of insight and best practices collected from other clients to ensure an organization's EHR is optimized for value-based payment models or to help select a replacement system that will meet strategic objectives while satisfying administrative staff, provider and most importantly, patient needs.
About the author:
Dan O'Connor is vice president of client relations at Stoltenberg Consulting, Inc.
[2] http://www.himss.org/2015-leadership-survey
[3] http://www.himss.org/ResourceLibrary/genResourceDetailPDF.aspx?ItemNumber=41969
The views, opinions and positions expressed within these guest posts are those of the author alone and do not represent those of Becker's Hospital Review/Becker's Healthcare. The accuracy, completeness and validity of any statements made within this article are not guaranteed. We accept no liability for any errors, omissions or representations. The copyright of this content belongs to the author and any liability with regards to infringement of intellectual property rights remains with them.