Digital Transformation in Healthcare – II [Updated 2020]

In the previous article on Digital Transformation In Healthcare, we’d discussed how when the right level of technology is incorporated in healthcare; it helps in gathering the data in one place, making the data accessible anytime and anywhere. Every industry benefits from digitization and the same apply to healthcare.

Here, we continue to discuss the various modules integrated into a digital healthcare system to help the needs of the hospital, its doctors, and administrators:

Modules in Healthcare and Digital Transformation 

• Appointment manager

Talk about managing a healthcare business; managing the appointments is one of the most crucial parts. Online appointment management is not a new concept owing to the adoption of the digital healthcare system. There are various healthcare institutions that allow patients to check the availability of the doctor and then book an appointment online. The appointment manager module in the smart healthcare management system takes this process one step ahead.

The appointment manager would begin with collating information about the daily charts, the availability of the doctors and the other medical staff. Last-minute cancellations or cases where the doctor’s arrival is delayed, if there is an emergency to tend to and other such real-time updates are integrated. It puts together valuable information for the patients as well as for the hospital administration to take care of emergency situations.

 The appointment fixing would also be based on the prioritizing of the consultations of in-patients and out-patients scheduled for the day. Managing the appointments would avoid commotion at the help desk. This would also ensure that the facilities are available by reducing the chances of overcrowding the clinics and consultation areas. If there are no-shows or if the patients turn up late, the appointments could also be adjusted based on the list. 

On the whole, when the implementation of such healthcare innovation trends takes place the hospital administration staff would be free from a lot of confusion. And a major workload would be lifted off their shoulder. So they would be able to focus on other important tasks while the appointment manager takes care of the appointments in real-time. For the patients, there would be reduced wait times, and this enhances the overall experience a great deal.

• Communication platform to connect, collaborate and care

Efficient collaboration and convenient ways to connect would make it easy for healthcare businesses to offer quality care for the patients.

There are several places where communication happens even before the diagnosis and treatment begin. To begin with, the patient would look for quality healthcare solution providers and then hunt for the best doctors. Or if the patient already has a doctor, then there might be the need to find the hospitals and the availability of the doctor to fix an appointment, where the appointment manager would help. For surgeries and treatment plans for chronic illnesses, there might be even more frequent communication happening. 

The patient might have to keep a check on the medications taken before and after the treatment. So the doctors would be able to get in touch with the patients for follow up. Along with this communication, there would also be the need for recording all the interactions that happen between the doctor and the patient. 

Patient records would have to be maintained and accessed even if the patient comes back for a consultation after a long gap and even if the doctor whom the patient was previously consulting is not with the hospital anymore.

On the whole, this digital technology in the healthcare module would ensure that every piece of information relayed among doctors, patients, medical staff, management teams, administration teams and other non-medical staff can all be documented. So there would be no gaps, and even in the absence of the concerned people there would be no delays created. And finally, this information is also valuable in medical inventory planning.

• Staff tracker and timesheet

Maintaining timesheets is known to improve productivity in the workplace and is another place where healthcare transformation solutions play a major role. It helps the hospitals in knowing how the staff spend their time. So it helps the administration teams and the management teams understand how to plan the daily tasks for the various staff members. It makes the assignment of duties simpler.

Read More : “Impact of Digital Transformation in shaping future Healthcare“

 And for the staff, maintenance of the timesheets would help them understand how much time is spent on each activity. It helps them work on improving their time management plans and in turn, improves their output. The data can easily be reviewed on a periodic basis, either every week or month in order to manage the resources better.

• Medical equipment tracker

There are situations where, in spite of the availability of the concerned doctors’ treatments are delayed due to the non-availability of essential medical equipment. Sometimes the delays or even cancellations of appointments might also be caused due to the repairs or breakdowns in the hospital equipment. 

The medical equipment tracker is one of the best examples of digital transformation in healthcare that puts an end to all these woes and avoids all sorts of inconvenience caused to patients and to the hospital staff due to the non-availability or increased demand of a piece of equipment. With respect to the labs, the samples collected for testing could be accurately maintained, and the process of analyzing the samples and updating the patients and the doctors could be automated by including easy RFID tags for the samples. 

Similar RFID tags would also make it easy to evaluate the health of the machinery and schedule repairs if required. Regular maintenance activities scheduling could also be automated. It would ensure that the medical equipment is in its best condition, and this would result in better quality healthcare for the patients, which also strengthens the patients’ trust in the hospital. Medicine availability and planning of inventory could also be improved with this module.

Digital Healthcare Trends 2020 

What is digital transformation in healthcare? As we are currently witnessing, the healthcare industry has been developing rapidly and moving towards the world of digitalization. For providing patients with quality and cost-effective care by heavily relying on modern methods, there are several reforms made already.

It is already predicted that digital transformation in this sector will steadily increase in the coming years and revolutionize the healthcare sector at a whole new level. Having said that, listed below are some of the most promising future trends in the healthcare industry that will contribute to its major growth. 

• Wearable Medical Devices 

The increasing popularity of wearable medical devices has led most of the patients to focus more on the preventive measures rather than the cure. A major reason for this is that these devices help in tracking the possible symptoms in the patient’s body. 

This data can then be easily shared with doctors so that they can further investigate for an underlying disease or the possibility of acquiring one in the future. Typical examples of such devices include oximeters, heart monitor and sweat meters. 

• On-demand healthcare to Patients 

Lives of people are constantly getting busier so much so that their entire schedule is packed with activities. Healthcare is no different from this. People no longer find the patience to wait in queues in order to get examined by the doctor. Instead, they now look for an on-demand healthcare approach whenever they are free and require it. 

And with this, healthcare digital transformation trends have now given rise to telemedicine services that are getting popular day by day. Many hospitals are now looking forward to upgrading their organizations and offer these services to help attend and treat more patients in a short span of time. It is predicted that in the coming years, telemedicine is going to become one of the major healthcare innovation trends. 

• Rise of Online Pharmacies 

Just as discussed above, most of the people are now looking forward to on-demand healthcare services that do not intervene in their daily schedule. And in line with this, it is evident people will no longer go to visit multiple pharmacies because of the lack of availability of a particular medicine. 

Online pharmacies are one of the top healthcare trends 2020 that will be of great help to people, to avail their medicine without any delay. Ordering their medicine, they will have their purchase delivered to their homes without having to step out of their space. This particular trend definitely has a bright future since many people are now shifting towards buying medicines online. 

So how to transform healthcare? It is strategies like these that play a crucial role in bringing about the much needed digital transformation in the healthcare sector. 

Final Words

On the whole, one thing that we know for sure is that incorporating the right amount of digital transformation healthcare would help hospitals save time and money and would help patients receive reliable treatments on time. It thus enhances the healthcare industry from every dimension. And for this to happen, organizations need to opt for digital transformation consulting providers who will guide them through the various strategies that are required to incorporate for delivering quality and cost-effective healthcare services. Ultimately, the right digital transformation company solution will be the one that will focus more on patient care rather than giving more importance to technology.