In this age of profound technological advancements in healthcare, leaders are keeping a sharp focus on their biggest asset and driver of success: people. This focus on people, paired with strategic efforts to improve efficiency, can transform healthcare operations.
This was a key theme of an executive roundtable sponsored by symplr at Becker's 9th Annual Health IT + Digital Health + RCM Conference. The roundtable was led by Nicole Rogas, President of symplr, who facilitated a discussion on why people must be at the center of optimized healthcare operations.
Four key takeaways were:
1. Success in any healthcare organization begins and ends with people.
Health systems must focus on creating a culture where people feel empowered and are positioned to succeed. Technology must be viewed as a complementary tool — not the sole solution.
To foster a people-centered approach in innovation, roundtable participants highlighted the importance of engaging end users (particularly healthcare staff) in the development of tech-enabled workflows. Not only does this signal to staff that leaders value their input and experiences, it also helps to ensure new tools truly optimize their work.
2. Within healthcare operations are opportunities for massive efficiency gains.
The systems and processes that comprise healthcare operations help to ensure patients get the care they need, when they need it. Healthcare operations sit strategically at the nexus of enterprise resource management, the EHR and revenue cycle management.
Streamlining aspects of healthcare operations — such as vendor and provider credentialing, contract and access management, and clinical communications — have the potential to significantly boost efficiency.
3. symplr helps healthcare organizations across four key pillars.
- Provider data management – Handles credentialing and privileging, directory management, and a consumer-facing "find a doctor" tool in a single-source, end-to-end solution
- Workforce management – Helps manage hiring and retaining talent through scheduling, analytics, and communications initiatives
- Contract and supplier management – Optimizes spend for non-labor procurement and standardizes contracts
- Compliance, quality, and safety – Achieves and maintains regulatory compliance and accreditation through managing risks and penalties and benchmarking care quality
4. The provider lifecycle is one example of healthcare operations that holds improvement potential.
This may include streamlining everything from recruiting and hiring through learning, development and competency, to clinical communications and evaluation.
By focusing on people and operations first, healthcare organizations can uncover hidden opportunities to gain efficiencies.
Conclusion
Healthcare organizations must continue to grow their focus on people; patients, front-line clinicians and operations personnel are interconnected. Roundtable participants underscored how operational teams play a vital role not only in delivering great care, but also in generating efficiencies and reducing complexity. This approach — with patient centricity as the foundation — is a key pathway for supporting health systems' financial and operational sustainability in the years to come.