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Why Should I Implement New Technologies in My Health Company?

By Rodolfo Schaefer Resines - Ecaresoft
Revenue Director of Products at Nimbo

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By Rodolfo Schaefer Resines | Revenue Director of Products at Nimbo - Thu, 01/28/2021 - 15:01

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Technology and apps that work in the cloud under the Software as a Service (SaaS) model have become a fundamental tool for the operation and competitiveness of many companies. This is an essential condition for innovation in companies since it reduces infrastructure costs (leaving behind on-site servers) and implementation services (mobilizing organizations rapidly toward change). Also, it guarantees better availability and security for users, it’s flexible and accelerates business traction.

Take the recent COVID-19 pandemic: clinics and hospitals saw a pronounced drop in on-site patient flow. Initially, the decline was 20 percent but as the sanitary measures extended for months, the operations fell 70 percent. Without patients, savings that covered daily operations ended and expenses exceeded cash flow. However, some organizations decided to explore an alternative: telemedicine.

Although it has been difficult to regulate telemedicine, we’ve observed that this solution helped hospitals adapt to the challenge. Instead of losing patients due to health measures on-site, they chose to transfer 20 percent of their operation to the telemedicine model and use on-site visits only for justified treatments, procedures and follow-up consultations. A success case of this is Farmacias del Ahorro, a Mexican chain of pharmacies that reinvented itself as a company during the pandemic.

COVID-19 has highlighted the need for businesses to include security, flexibility and scalable remote access in their plans. The proper technology and a capable technology partner enable healthcare organizations to consistently deliver secure networks and services, helping to empower clinical staff and provide better support to their patients. In its new study, Gartner advises companies to be careful with providers that don’t have the architecture or that can’t manage the effective implementation of appropriate technologies for the cloud. Security is directly related to the above.

At Ecaresoft, I have directed software implementations for primary care in several countries, such as Mexico, Argentina, Panama, Peru, Ecuador, Chile, Costa Rica, Colombia, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, and in health organizations, such as hospitals, clinical and pharmacy networks and for hundreds of private doctors.

There is a growing need to find more efficient ways to increase access to healthcare and reduce the costs of access for patients, personalization of care and follow-up of treatments and chronic diseases. There is also a need to provide patients with a better care experience, administrative and financial control over cost centers, information security and privacy and data accessibility to make better clinical and administrative decisions.

These challenges are not easy to solve and require a continuous effort of growth and development. These clients come to us without a clear perspective of how to achieve it and what the right solution is. What they do know is that they need tools to achieve it. How do we help them make the leap from their vision and where they are today? The answer lies in after-sales service and professional implementation services.

Within each SaaS company, there is a specific area dedicated to implementing technology in the customer's organization: Customer Success. It is a team of professionals who will fully understand how your business operates and can be taught how the operations are conducted and the vision of change. Together, with the solution you are implementing, the goals can be met. This team is key to the adoption of the solution in your organization and to guide you using industry-best practices to make a successful transition.

With Nimbo, a Digital Patient Management System, we measure success in two categories: the first is user satisfaction (doctors, nurses, assistants and receptionists, administrators and coordinators). Implementing technology in clinical processes tends to be disruptive, so it is a priority to measure the change effort it takes for users (and their patients) to adapt their protocols and procedures in the tool. The user experience, access to information and execution of processes is a critical success factor and ends up defining the perception of users: if they don't love it, they won't use it.

The second category is the Key Performance Indicators. We define these results and deliverables together with our clients by surveying the current situation (or gap analysis) in their health institution. It is key for the Customer Success team to sit down with the medical teams, understand the flow of patients and know the logistics of your hospital or clinic. Based on this, we guide the success of the implementation in the organization: if it can't be measured, it can’t be managed.

Clinics and hospitals using Nimbo for the first time will build their digital patient management infrastructure together with their resource planning system in a couple of weeks. Post-implementation, to ensure continued growth and adoption in the healthcare facility, we assign the Customer Care team to our client's long-term success. As a result, we have helped physicians to grow their number of consultations, clinics to create a hospital and hospitals to provide better access to quality healthcare and accessibility to more patients.

Forty percent of organizations plan to adopt cloud technologies in the next five years to accelerate their growth. If you are planning and looking for SaaS solutions for your business, remember to focus on optimal technology from a technology partner that provides you with security and a track record of success in your industry. Clinical doctors and hospital managers expect this from any Electronic Health Record and ERP system. How have your past experiences with product implementations been in your medical organization?

Photo by:   Rodolfo Schaefer Resines

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