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Transforming Patient Care through Healthcare Technology Integration

Matt Odell
Healthcare technology integration eliminates the silos that create inefficiencies and gaps in the patient journey, from admission and diagnosis to discharge and follow-up.

 

 

Today’s healthcare landscape is a far cry from healthcare of the past. It’s highly competitive and financially demanding. New reimbursement models prioritize value and outcomes over volume and services rendered. The costs of services continue to rise, compelling providers to manage their budgets closely without sacrificing care.

 

These transformations are underscored by a continuing shortage of skilled clinicians. By 2028, it’s predicted that the United States will need more than 100,000 healthcare workers.

 

To rise above the competition and attract and retain loyal clinical care team members and patients, healthcare organizations have no choice but to work harder than ever to deliver exceptional healthcare experiences all around. But they must do so while keeping costs and available resources in check.

 

Standalone systems only take you so far

For hospitals and medical facilities, large investments in healthcare technology and software are a given. Things like nurse call systems, patient monitoring devices and electronic health records (EHRs) are nothing new. In fact, these systems are a necessity to provide basic care today. Healthcare organizations that want to go the extra mile often invest in innovations like robotics, patient engagement systems and wearables to remotely monitor patients.

 

Traditionally, each of these healthcare systems and platforms exists in its own silo and acts as its own entity, serving a specific purpose or working to solve a specific problem.

 

But these silos create inefficiencies across the patient journey, from admission and diagnosis to discharge and follow-up. Lack of interoperability between systems fragments communication between departments. This leads to gaps in patient care due to duplication of effort, inaccuracies in patient information, inefficient scheduling and delays in reporting results.

 

Consider an EHR, for example. On its own, an EHR is simply a digital version of a patient’s paper chart—a centralized place to store patient information. When it’s integrated with other platforms and devices, however, it can become something much more.

 

For instance, say that a connected monitoring device detects a sudden increase in a patient’s heart rate. In addition to feeding this data into the EHR, it can send an alert to staff so they can take action right away. If the doctor decides to order an EKG for the patient, the results are automatically uploaded to the EHR so they can be reviewed by the doctor with a mobile device as soon as they’re available.

 

Healthcare platforms and technology become much more powerful when they work together to provide the level of operational intelligence required to help clinicians focus on patients, not paperwork. In most hospitals, existing systems and data already have built-in interoperability capabilities. Clinicians use these platforms on a daily basis, but not to their full potential.

 

Integrating systems so they can “talk” to each other to collect and share data and automate tasks elevates the performance of your existing technology. This not only improves technology ROI but also helps you gain efficiencies by saving time and preserving resources.

 

Why healthcare technology integration improves the patient journey

Integrating healthcare technology can positively influence outcomes by offering a more connected, efficient and patient-centered care environment. This happens in many ways, such as:

  • Supporting seamless communication between providers so they can better coordinate and collaborate to reduce information loss during handoff, transfer, etc.

  • Allowing clinicians to access real-time patient information for faster, more informed decision-making and timely intervention.

  • Accurately diagnosing and ensuring that proper treatment plans are developed and tailored based on needs.

  • Reducing administrative tasks associated with workflows like scheduling, billing, documentation, etc.

  • Automating alerts and reminders to ensure adherence to guidelines, help clinicians focus on the most critical tasks and improve patient outcomes.

  • Helping hospitals decide how and where to deploy resources, including staff and inventory, based on real-time needs and priorities.

The bottom line: When care teams can focus more on patient interactions and less on getting through workflows, then patients are happier, better cared for and more likely to experience positive outcomes.

 

Integration with intention: solving real healthcare problems

Success with healthcare integration takes more than simply connecting a few systems. Long before you bring platforms together, you must first identify the problem or challenge you expect healthcare technology integration to improve or overcome.

 

For instance, the goal could be to:

  • Give staff easier ways to share up-to-date patient information quickly

  • Reduce duplicate data entry and administrative burden

  • Improve patient response times

  • Optimize allocation of staff resources

  • Allow patients to have better control over their environment without having to ask staff for help

  • Track equipment location in real-time so clinicians can easily find what they’re looking for

Once you’ve identified the systems and platforms to integrate—and what this will accomplish—then it’s critically important to track integration success. Did this healthcare technology integration help you achieve your goals? Did it solve the problem you identified? What new problems have been uncovered that could be addressed in a similar way?

 

Belden helps you create a healthcare tech integration plan

Healthcare technology integration can help clinicians focus more on what they come to work to do every day: take care of patients and families and make sure their journeys are as safe, comfortable and satisfactory as possible, from admission to follow-up.

 

To see integration in action, you can explore our state-of-the-art Customer Innovation Center in Chicago—the home of Belden’s Enhancing Patient Experiences Showcase. Our team of onsite healthcare experts can tailor an immersive tour just for you based on what you want to experience and learn.

 

Belden’s healthcare experts can help you integrate with purpose. We do this by identifying problems and challenges that can be overcome through technology integration. Then, we can help you build a solution and establish ways to measure performance and engagement so you can understand the benefits that integration provides.

 

See how we support enhanced patient experiences.

 

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