As healthcare systems globally reel from the devastating impact of COVID-19, their immediate focus is on responding to this unprecedented health crisis. However, the coronavirus pandemic has also caused health leaders and organisations to consider what healthcare may look like in a post-COVID-19 world.
As with many other industries, it’s clear that digital transformation will play a vital role in the new reality for healthcare. Effective digital transformation will allow patients to experience a seamless care journey that’s connected across channels and care settings, delivered by healthcare organisations with strong IT capability, connected front and back offices and an agile and empowered workforce.
In 2020, KPMG released a report, Connected Health: The new reality for healthcare which identified eight critical capabilities required for healthcare organisations to realise the potential of digital transformation and become truly connected organisations.
1. Insight-led decision making and strategy
The intensity and severity of the pandemic has highlighted data as a key enabler for strategy and decision making. Likewise, it’s driven home the importance of having access to real-time data, multi-channel information. This data will support healthcare providers to develop analytics and insights that inform both instant clinical decisions and longer-term strategies.
2. Development of innovative and responsive services
Healthcare organisations must be able to design, develop and deliver innovative, evidence-based services that respond to patient and community needs and provide a better user experience and health outcomes. New safety protocols and contactless and remote ways of working are some recent examples the sector has had to adapt to rapidly.
3. User-centric design
A user-centric approach considers a patient’s experience throughout their entire care journey, not just discrete interactions with GPs, specialists or hospitals. COVID-19 has highlighted high levels of fragmentation and poor coordination in many health systems globally. Mapping the patient and provider experience and identifying and actioning opportunities for improvement will support progress towards ensuring that users enjoy a seamless experience throughout the health system.
4. An omnichannel approach
An omnichannel approach across marketing, service delivery, billing and other functions will allow healthcare providers to interact and transact with patients in a personalised, secure and integrated way.
5. Responsive supply chain and operations
The global pandemic has underlined the importance of responsive, agile decision making and coordination across functions as varied as procurement, supply chain, resourcing, clinical operations and more. In a connected organisation, comprehensive data and analytics support better resilience and agility in the face of uncertainty.
COVID-19 has brought renewed focus on workforce shortages in the healthcare system globally while accelerating the pace of technological change. Tomorrow’s healthcare workers must be supported with a workforce strategy that delivers ongoing skills development, comprehensive change management support and employee empowerment.
7. Digitally enabled technology architecture
Integrated systems and technology are essential to providing a seamless experience for patients across multiple healthcare settings. They must integrate digital and face-to-face consultations, support the sharing of patient data, and enable patients to engage with organisations via online channels. Technology solutions must be agile, cost-effective and scalable while offering trusted data security and privacy.
8. Integrated partner ecosystem
The pace of change in healthcare requirements has seen the sector more reliant than ever on support from third-party partners. Whether providing testing capability, personal protective equipment (PPE) or digital services to enable online booking, telehealth consultations, contract tracing and more, health providers are looking to partners to assist with emerging capability and service delivery gaps.
At Xetta, we partner with healthcare organisations to help them navigate digital transformation in a rapidly changing environment. As health providers seek to reinvent their business models and deliver a seamless patient experience, they must unite people, processes and technology around these aspirations.
Xetta is a powerful commerce platform that integrates with healthcare organisations’ core business systems to simplify workflows, expand payment capability, streamline reconciliation, reduce security and compliance risk, and provide valuable reporting and analytics.
