It’s understandable that the pandemic could stretch the strongest of care teams to exhaustion and overwhelm. Yet healthcare organizations (HCOs) were grappling with clinician burnout long before COVID entered the scene.
In fact, the importance of clinician burnout – and the dire impacts if not addressed – was formally recognized nearly a decade ago. In 2014, the Triple Aim of enhancing patient experience, improving population health, and reducing costs expanded to include a fourth aim: improving the work life of health care providers, including clinicians and staff.
In its recent report, Ease the Nursing Shortage By Triaging and Responding to Early Workforce Warning Signs, Forrester analysts explore the current-state need, stating that this burden sits at an “all-time high” with the largest nursing shortage in recent history bearing the weight of “[s]oaring chronic disease prevalence, an aging population, and the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Even still, the analysts offer hope.
The Intersection of Technology and Better Care Experiences
Technology stands to elevate care experiences and empower care teams. But it can also create new complexities. In an interview for Forrester’s report, Priyal Patel, Perficient director of healthcare strategy and solutions suggests approaching technology in a different way:
“Technology is not necessarily the value that we seek. It’s the tool that LEADS to the value and the desired outcomes that we seek.”
One way we help HCOs reach this pinnacle goal is by taking an outside-in approach. We first look outside to better understand the landscape and the values and outcomes that indicate success. Those insights are realized through a deeper understanding of user journeys, which are comprised of various experiences and engagement touchpoints enabled by an organization’s structures and business capabilities – the point where the assessment gaze begins to focus more intently on what is taking place inside the business. With those understandings in view, HCOs are better equipped to consider the specific technologies that will power the value and the outcomes they seek.
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Layering In the Equally Important Aim of Health Equity
In this ever-evolving healthcare environment, care considerations have expanded to also include a fifth aim: health equity.
In its report, Forrester acknowledges that nursing shortages have reached advanced stages, and positions that “[t]he solution lies in removing any and all processes not aligned with achieving the Quintuple Aim and restructuring to position for new and inclusive growth.”
Through it all, these discoveries and processes follow an evolving step approach as Priyal Patel further shares in the interview for the Forrester report:
“We combine strategy and data and the technology to help our clients iterate and continue building on the solutions. It’s never, ever one and done.”
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Healthcare Leaders Turn to Us
Our healthcare experts bring deep understanding and insights around the unique challenges facing the industry. The 10 largest health systems and 10 largest health insurers in the U.S. have counted on us to support their end-to-end digital success. Modern Healthcare has also recognized us as the fourth largest healthcare IT consulting firm.
Have questions? Contact us today, and let’s discuss your specific needs and goals.
