With the digital transformation well underway, many healthcare CIOs are beginning to focus efforts on how to introduce new technologies to the business while maintaining costs and improving patient experiences. This move to bring in innovations is introducing new, exciting things to the healthcare industry in 2019 and beyond.
For CIOs, the challenge comes in recognizing what’s most important for their business’s growth while offering a good mix of offerings that will excel their efforts into the future.
Here’s a closer look at the 3 priorities healthcare CIOs will have in 2019.
Patient Experience
As with other industries, the key to competing is providing a seamless customer experience and in healthcare, it is offering great patient experiences. Creating an environment of engagement and value that is pleasing to patients is the key to winning their business. Healthcare consumerism is happening today and patients are expecting great experiences when they choose an organization just as they do when shopping at a retail store or dining out.
By focusing on patient experience in 2019, CIOs will help link business goals with consumer demands. To achieve this, introducing care management tools like navigation tools, sensors, medication reminder apps, and virtual care options to reach more rural patients when possible are essential.
IT Cost
Even with demands for new technology adoption across healthcare, CIOs are still working with tight budgets and the need to cut costs. This presents challenges that need to be addressed throughout 2019 and the upcoming years.
Finding innovative ways to leverage cutting-edge digital solutions into the current investments, or start adopting new and scalable technologies that would further allow an effective modernization of outdated legacy systems help healthcare organizations to transition their organizations seamlessly.
Moving to the cloud has been making this transition easier and more cost-effective for CIOs. One recent survey of CIOs by Nuance uncovered that more than 70 percent of hospital IT systems are now cloud-based and that two-thirds of CIO budgets are going to cloud-based solutions to drive EHR optimization to speed up and ease intensive administrative duties for physicians while also offering patient’s solutions that further enhance their experiences.
Innovation
Even with all of this focus on cost and patient experiences, keeping an eye on future innovations in a field that advances so quickly is only part of a CIO’s job in 2019. Investment in emerging digital health tools and the governance behind them is critical. This will ensure that new technologies like blockchain or strategic partnerships with organizations outside of healthcare remain focused on strategic goals. Getting an early start with these tools will put practices ahead of the competition.
VLink works with businesses to help address technology challenges while aligning business goals with IT requirements. We offer CIOs the tools necessary for meeting budget, staffing and management needs and are focused on future growth with clients in mind. Contact us to get started today!
Shivisha Patel
Nikhil Khandelwal VP Engineering
