Mohanachandran,
Regional IT Lead (Maharashtra),
Apollo Hospitals Enterprise Ltd.,
Technology in healthcare has taken a tremendous upleap in recent years, but implementation and adoption aspects of the same have not been well understood and taken care of many times. Post selection of any software for healthcare, there are no specific guidelines for rolling this out and organizations follow their process. In this write-up, I’m trying to list down some of the aspects that we miss in both these areas and their mitigation plans for getting any product well implemented and adopted.
The areas listed below are the potential reasons for any healthcare implementation failures.
Lack of visionary planning - Many a time, due to the need of rolling out the systems quickly, there may not be a well-defined plan of implementation. This gets started from different perspectives and priorities which defeats the purpose fully.
Too much relied on technology - There are a lot of new technologies emerging in the healthcare IT environment and without understanding the actual benefits and adoption possibilities on the ground, tending to rely upon this can lead to an overhyped initiative and may not take off well.
No importance on change management - Without proper change management methodology, the implementation can fail as the go-live is not the end of the project rollout, even though a key milestone.
No appropriate acceptance testing - Not involving the functional team or proper UAT, can cause the project failed as when the product is in production, the functional team may not be able to correlate
No focus on the goal - Due to multiple priorities from a patient care perspective, the implementation plans can get diluted. Failing to keep this on track may affect the implementation.
Plan It Well
Technology is a key, but not everything.
Understand the challenge and identify whether you need a high-end technology or a behavioural/operational process correction. Keep technology as part of the solution, but well assess the scenario before we opt for the technology as a solution. Don’t get bought in by the product demonstrations alone, as the same may not give the desired results on the ground.
Focus Change Management
Keep track of changes in the environment and initiate proper versioning. This may help in any rollbacks due to the functional constraints of post-production rollouts. Also, this will enable the users to identify the benefits rolled out after new versions come in.
Take Real User Acceptance
Involve the functional team in acceptance testing, and ensure the ownership lies with them to accept and approve the changes before rolling them out in production. This creates a feeling of importance and thus helps to manage the implementation smooth
Focused Approach
Need to maintain a high-level interaction with the business team to not lose the focus on implementation, apart from the regular activities they do.
You may have done well with your implementation but have not been able to reach the desired utilization or adoption due to the below reasons, lets quickly review these areas.
Process Gaps - Process gaps play a large role in reducing adoption, as there is no connection between the process in real-time towards what is available in the rolled-out systems.
Unfair / Incomplete ASIS study - Before rolling out a product in the live environment, no thorough ASIS evaluation is done, so the gaps come up as roadblocks post the rollout of the product and there would not be an option to correct this as the design is fully done.
Bad Master Data Definition - Lack of involving actual functional people at the time of master data definition will bring in a lot of inefficiency in master data. This can’t be rectified so easily, once the product has run for some time and the data is accumulated.
Less orientation and handholding - Lack of orientation in the functional perspective and inefficiency of hand-holding the functional team is a really a challenge in Adoption.
Too Complex Solutions - Selecting a product with too complex UI and workflow, which would make the life of functional people difficult w.r.t the volume they handle day-to-day
Being said the above points of adoption challenges, we could think of a specific set of remedial measures for getting away from this teething challenge. Utilization of any implemented software is directly proportional to the ROI and other financial aspects; hence the significance of adoption is too critical for a business team to evaluate and monitor.
Fill the Gaps in Process - Need to look at this from a design and implementation perspective and define desired process fillers as workarounds or process definitions.
Complete Background Study - If the product is in the design phase, incorporate the findings from the ASIS study, and if the same is developed and rolled out, incorporate these by defining optimal operational processes.
Well Built Masters - Revisit the key master data and redefine the same aligned to business operations. In a production environment, this becomes tedious, as the impact on previous data, but we could mitigate this by a one-time migration with proper checks and balances
Well orient and handhold. - Make a functional champion team to increase the orientation and empower them to own the product. Many times, users are not aware of the actual benefit of adopting a standard product and it comes as an imposition to them – Need to remove the same.
Simple Solutions - Select a product that is good at UI/UX and simple in the workflow so that everyone follows this with ease and benefits them to do smart work, rather than a burden.
Even though the above remain almost the same in all domains, healthcare can do better if we can understand and take necessary precautions to get a product implemented and adopted well leading to better operational efficiency, service excellence, and patient satisfaction.
Mohanachandran is a seasoned Healthcare IT professional with 19+ years of experience in NextGen HIS, RIS/LIS, ERP (SAP/Oracle), and IT operations management. He specializes in healthcare integrations, telemedicine, Tele-ICU, smart ambulances, wearable tech, and disaster recovery solutions.
With a strong background in IT infrastructure, capacity planning, and resource optimization, he has successfully led digital transformation initiatives to enhance patient care and operational efficiency. A quick learner and problem solver, Mohanachandran excels in blending technology with healthcare to drive innovation and accessibility.
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