For any healthcare organisation, be it a clinic, a diagnostic lab or a large hospital chain, the following five key levers should be considered before implementing a tech intervention to improve operational efficiency.

Cost

Budget
Return on Investment (ROI)

While thinking about the cost, every healthcare organisation must first look at the budget that the organisation has, and what the cost of implementing the tech intervention is. If the cost of implementing the tech intervention is too high, with minimal gains or ROI, the tech intervention should not be chosen. Additionally, organisations may also consider the loss that they are facing by not implementing the technology.

For instance, by not implementing the tech intervention that helped improve the discharge process, a hospital may face the issue of sub-optimal bed utilisation. This means that the revenue loss that occurs by not implementing the tech intervention will need to be compared with the cost of implementing the same. If the revenue loss by not implementing the technological intervention is higher than the cost of its implementation, then the hospital would want to implement the technological intervention.

Let's go through a solved example to learn how to compare the revenue loss due to the non-implementation of technological intervention and the cost of implementation of the technological intervention

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Business Process Change

Automate parts of the existing process
Eliminate wasteful steps

You must evaluate the level of business process change that you are looking to achieve through the tech intervention. You may think of automating some steps in an existing process to expedite it. On the other hand, you may also remove some wasteful steps from the existing process, to make it more efficient.

For instance, in the automation of the discharge process, the AI-driven doc reader was used to read the scanned copy of the bills that were read manually in the existing process. This would be an example of automating parts of the existing process. However, if the computerised bill could be integrated into the rest of the system in a seamless way, then it would eliminate the steps of printing, scanning and reading from the existing process.

Integration with other systems

Integration within the organisation
Integration with external systems

Based on the kind of organisation, you may choose to integrate a particular process within the entire organisation. For instance, you may integrate the entire patient journey process through a connected IT system that would help you in tracking and planning for the next steps for any patient. This may be useful for all small or large healthcare organisations. However, integration with external systems, such as insurance providers may only be necessary for larger hospitals where the process becomes a regular bottleneck.

Data privacy

There are several considerations that would be essential when it comes to evaluating the data privacy aspect of a technology solution. Some of them are given below.

Data collection
Use of Personally identifiable information (PII), such as a patient’s full name, any unique identification number associated with them such as their Aadhaar or bank account number
Data access to be given only to relevant stakeholders
Data to be stored in a secure manner, based on the sensitivity of the information

Data privacy is one of the chief concerns when it comes to any tech solutions that you would look to implement. Several key considerations can directly be seen from important laws, such as the Information Technology Act or the proposed Digital Information Security in Healthcare Act (DISHA) in India.

To evaluate any tech intervention from the data privacy lens, you would first need to consider data collection. Only data that is needed for any particular part of a process should be collected. For instance, to conduct a diagnostic test, you may need to consider the level of background data that you would need from the patient. Would it be necessary to collect personal and sensitive data based on aspects such as a person's religion or caste? Secondly, you would need to consider how the tech solution uses personally identifiable information. For instance, a patient’s personal information should not be revealed to anyone apart from the treating physician. This also means that any sensitive data about the patient should only be accessible to the relevant stakeholders. For instance, a billing professional would not need access to a patient’s case history. They would only require the information used to bill the patient for the services provided. Finally, healthcare data storage should always be secure. The tech solution should consider the possible challenges that can arise from a data breach.

Accessibility of the tech intervention

Tech intervention should be customised according to stakeholder needs
Tech intervention to have guidelines on which platforms can the stakeholders access it from

While determining a tech intervention for your organisation, you would need to think about how customised the intervention can be according to the needs of the different stakeholders. For instance, as seen in the tech intervention for the admission or appointment process, based on the requirements of the patients, doctors and the clinic itself, the app was able to provide different views and features.

Additionally, you would also need to consider the kinds of platforms that different stakeholders may be able to access. There may be some stakeholders who do not need real-time access to the application and its data, once they are outside the premises of the organisation. For such stakeholders, you may consider providing desktop application access. On the other hand, physicians and patients may need real-time updates, and hence a mobile-based view of the application may be more suitable.

Now that you have understood the levers to consider when implementing a technological intervention, let's move on to some industry insights in the next segment.