There’s a constant time crunch faced by most IT departments, especially those in the healthcare sector. Fortunately, we believe it’s possible to strengthen your IT team’s capabilities without breaking the bank.
With the rapid progression of technology and escalating user expectations, every CIO or CTO undoubtedly yearns for a larger budget for IT resource. Most teams concur that the day doesn’t have enough hours to meet stakeholder requirements and enhance patient care simultaneously. However, it is indeed possible to expand your IT resources without incurring exorbitant costs.
Let’s look at how.
Employ more staff
This may sound like an obvious one to start with but bear with us.
Yes, we know there’s currently a global IT skills gap and so you may not be able to recruit senior EHR specialists without dealing with inflated recruitment fees and high salary commitments. However, there’s value in bringing on board less experienced staff members or apprentices to handle administrative tasks. This strategy not only alleviates some of the burden from your existing team but also allows you to cultivate talent that can fill skill gaps in the future.
Furthermore, having a larger team makes it easier to cover sudden absences, holidays or peaks in activity, thereby maintaining operations. It certainly doesn’t hurt to have additional sets of eyes to identify potential issues or to assist stakeholders.
Of course, providing training to new employees can take up time, particularly if it’s being carried out by existing members of your team. A workaround for this is to hire an external IT specialist to conduct the training. EHR Enhancify can train all skills levels on how to user Cerner EHR optimally.
Enhance your team’s skills
It’s a given that for an IT team to operate efficiently, they need to be armed with the necessary skills. Perhaps your team could boost their productivity if a designated time for training is allocated monthly. Also career progression planning can aid in identifying the current and future skills gaps, which will guide your training investments.
Beyond training in essential areas of EHR management and maximising the use of your other systems, consider enhancing your team’s soft skills. These include working under high-pressure situations, quick problem-solving, and swift decision-making. Your team should be able to handle emergencies, maintain professionalism during chaotic times, and provide empathetic responses when crises occur. With a couple of team members possessing these skills, your team will feel significantly more competent when facing a crisis.
Consider outsourcing some work
If you’re finding it challenging to manage all tasks, but lack the budget for extra personnel or software, consider delegating some of your team’s duties to an external party.
Rest assured, this can be done without large retainers or loss of control. EHR Enhancify’s team specializes in Cerner EHR, ensuring that any necessary enhancements, configurations, or fixes can be executed promptly and conveniently on a project-by-project basis if a monthly commitment is not preferable. By transferring some of your team’s responsibilities to a reliable third party that functions as an extension of your team, you can conserve time and concentrate on key business operations.
Book a meeting with us to get started.
Automate
A great way to strengthen healthcare IT team’s capabilities is to invest in software that automates a significant portion of their processes. Such automation tools can streamline routine tasks, reduce human error, and improve efficiency, enabling IT staff to focus on more complex issues that require their expertise.
These technologies can also help ensure compliance with industry regulations, as they can track and document actions accurately and consistently.
Additionally, automation can promote scalability, allowing healthcare IT infrastructures to adapt and grow with changing patient needs and technological advancements. Therefore, the investment in automation software can prove to be a strategic move towards enhancing productivity and effectiveness in healthcare IT operations.
Run a supplier evaluation
Amid the hustle and bustle, the significance of assessing your suppliers to ensure seamless backend operations can often be underestimated.
By scheduling a review session with each one, you have the opportunity to evaluate their performance. This could potentially lead you to a more cost-effective and efficient alternative. On the other hand, it may prompt your current supplier to enhance their service quality, thereby improving your overall IT resources and capabilities.
Collaborate with other organizations
One of the strengths of an EHR is that it allows the transfer of data from one healthcare practice to another. For this to work well, however, both practices need to be using their EHR (and other technologies) optimally. Therefore it follows that connecting with CIOs and CTOs in other healthcare organizations could help you share best practices or find solutions to long term challenges. And suddenly, your team’s ability to get on with more work has been boosted!
Improve your performance management
Boosting your IT resources can be achieved at no extra cost by enhancing the productivity of every team member, and this can be best accomplished through a comprehensive performance management program. Implementing such a program in IT may seem challenging, but it’s definitely achievable.
In addition to arranging regular meetings, setting realistic deadlines, defining clear objectives, and conducting thorough evaluations with each team member, one of the most crucial steps is to reward those who perform exceptionally well. This approach not only uplifts team morale and inspires others to emulate their success, but it also motivates your team to consistently deliver high-quality performance.
In conclusion, CTOs and CIOs have a wide array of strategies at their disposal to bolster their IT resources without overstepping their budget. From automating repetitive tasks and investing in staff training, to appointing a specialist EHR consultant to support you, there are numerous ways to optimize the use of IT resources. Ultimately, the key is to make strategic decisions that maximize value while minimizing costs, ensuring that the IT department is both robust and financially sustainable.