To read: ~ 3 minutes
The Critical Gap in Healthcare Technology Implementation
Vendors come in like cowboys, drop software, and with a tip of their hat: they’re gone. Meanwhile, clinical teams are left to wrangle a technology that may or may not fit into their workflows. Adoption is a game of “cross your fingers and hope for the best.”
And the rift between technical and clinical teams widens.
All because there is a glaring misunderstanding at play: You can implement technology at a hospital the same way you would at a corporation.
Jan Capps, Director of Clinical Services and Outcomes at Connexall, saw this disconnect as she was building her team at Clinical Elevate. “We didn’t have processes that really aligned with best practices around clinical adoption.”
As an advanced practice nurse herself, Jan could see that the traditional implementation model wasn’t the right fit.
Throwing Away the Old Playbook
Hospitals are uniquely complex environments with intricately connected systems. The needs of the clinical staff vary wildly from department to department, and the stakes are, quite literally, life and death.
If you walk into a clinical environment with a technical-first approach and a canned set of project metrics—you’re going to miss the mark. Even if your software has proven value.
In the old way, implementation teams would:
Take a technical-first approach – prioritizing system installation, configuration, and functionality over clinical workflows and user adoption (aka, the cowboy way).
Vanish after implementation – paying little attention to whether the technology was (or wasn’t) adopted by clinical staff.
Forget the downstream effects on patients – focusing instead on scope and timeline as the only measures of success.
Maintain siloes – with limited coordination between clinical and technical teams, ultimately setting themselves up for failure.
In the end, the efficacy of the software didn’t matter nearly as much as the real-world impact. Clinical staff, nurses in particular, are often slow to adopt change. To serve patients they need predictable outcomes, and standards of practice they can trust. Without their buy-in, your “transformative” software is doomed before first login.
Inside Clinical Elevate’s Methodology: a Blueprint for Lasting Change
There is no quick-fix solution to alarm management. Layering technology on top of teams that have developed their own workarounds to manage alarm fatigue is a bit like trying to shower a cat. You might get it wet, but it’s not going to like it – and will avoid a repeat performance at all costs.
That’s why Jan and her team began by shifting how they saw success. They would focus on sustainable clinical outcomes rather than traditional project metrics.
- Is this technology having a positive clinical impact?
- Does this technology fit into staff workflows? Is there widespread utilization, or is it siloed within technical teams?
- Is this adoption sustainable, or are users dropping out once the novelty of new tech has
worn off? - Has the team implementing this technology spent the necessary time inside the clinical environment so that they deeply understand the needs of the clinical staff?
The 100 over 12 rule
To make lasting change, says Jan, “You’ve got to spend about eighty-five to 100 hours over the course of twelve months.”
By starting with these questions, the Clinical Elevate team was able to develop a comprehensive 12-month program with clear phases, deliverables and accountability measures. This kind of sound clinical implementation includes:
Clinical-first focus during implementation, led by a team of clinical experts. Jan’s team all have BSN or higher degrees and are skilled informaticists, who understand both healthcare workflows and technology integration. (Their entire team is also trained on Human Factors Engineering – a fancy way of saying ‘make sure things are the right size and easy to use for the people who need them.’)
Stakeholder engagement with an emphasis on empowering clinical leadership from the beginning. Finding a champion in the form of a nursing leader with power to influence at the strategic level is imperative.
Direct observation on site, by the technical team. They should take into account the ergonomics, layout of the facility, and any other human factors that might impact adoption.
An evidence-based approach to determine best practices. The technical team should spend the time necessary to do their due diligence, using recent scientific literature as a baseline for strategic decisions.
One Giant Step into the Future of Healthcare Tech
Shifting to this “new way” may involve the killing of some darlings—technical and clinical teams alike tend to get stuck in old habits—but the results are undeniable.
- The large upfront investment of time and the on-the-ground partnership creates a self-sustaining system. Hospital teams are able to manage ongoing process improvement, once the implementation has ended.
- When the team that’s implementing the software has a clinical background and knows what it’s like to operate at top speed—and with the high stakes of patient safety—they can make technical choices that support that work rather than stand at odds with it.
- In this new paradigm, technology implementation is no longer the wild west. By using clinical outcomes as the hallmarks of success, you can develop a measurable framework to track hospital-wide impact.
Because of this, the Clinical Elevate approach is more like a clinical transformation initiative than a simple technical project. Healthcare provider Novant Health achieved a 43% reduction in alarms across twelve sites with Clinical Elevate by addressing workflow, configuration, education and communication issues rather than just technical deployment.
Partnership in Practice
“As a leader,” Jan says, “my job is to give you strategic direction, remove barriers, and empower you with the right tools.” She and her team believe in trust through transparency. The goal shouldn’t be recurring revenue, it should be successful, sound, adoption.
Anyone who has spent even a part of their career in a clinical setting understands that a hospital environment is constantly evolving. The technology within the hospital ecosystem should be evidence-based, human-focused, and able to grow and adapt as the organization grows.
If you’re looking for a partner in alarm management and workflow transformation, you can learn more about Clinical Elevate’s process and successes here.
