Battling staff shortages, budget limitations, and pandemics means that healthcare is a sector always on the edge of change.
Digital transformation is seen as key to meeting healthcare’s evolving demands. In fact, new Salesforce research this year revealed that while 99% of healthcare organisations have considered digital transformation as “an approach worth exploring, just 12% are fully digital”. There is clearly an incredible room and need for digital transformation.
What do we mean by digital transformation in healthcare? As well as the transition from physical to digital and from on-premises to cloud (as described by Salesforce), the World Economic Forum expresses it as an organisational change that “enables improvement in health systems agility, thereby improving operational excellence and patient experience, as well as reducing costs.”
While these pin down the process, they sound like a transition to becoming something wholly different and completed. But in the context of ‘digital transformation,’ businesses aren’t necessarily aiming to transform their core identity, but instead continually build on their existing abilities and expand their potential.
So, rather than viewing the process as a digital transformation, isn’t it better to term it a ‘Digital Evolution’? That way, digital transformations can take place within a wider and more long-term strategy of Digital Evolution.
However, to start your Digital Evolution journey, you need to create a culture of change. But where do you begin?
Identify your decision makers
The phrase ‘too many cooks’ exists for a reason. But on the flipside, too few decision makers can mean that the Digital Evolution doesn’t cater to the specific requirements of stakeholders across the organisation. If you leave out department heads, for example, then your Digital Evolution could overlook essential functions.
Once you’ve identified your decision makers you need to ensure that they have the time and capacity to be brought into the project. Equally, senior decision makers need to carve out the time to prioritise a Digital Evolution. It can be a gamechanger that helps not just the organisation itself, but employees, clients and patients too.
Changing mindsets
Once you know who your decision makers are, it’s important to ensure that everyone is on the same page. Each decision maker has their own priorities — the priority of a Chief Financial Officer will be significantly different to the priority of a Chief Consultant. So, this process can take some time.
Although this step of the Digital Evolution journey isn’t like flicking a switch, it does provide an opportunity for all decision makers to come together to buy into a common goal. By acknowledging the expectations of each stakeholder, it can automatically align the group and ensure everyone is driven towards the success of the project. A culture of change begins when mindsets start to shift.
Top down, and bottom up
Creating a culture of change starts at the top, but that doesn’t mean a bottom-up approach isn’t vital. A Digital Evolution is a journey, not a sprint, and it starts with speaking to your team — no matter how junior or senior.
There will be embedded behaviours within the organisation, which can lead to some resistance. To avoid this, you should explain the why behind the Digital Evolution. Team members are much more likely to buy into an initiative if they understand the mission and potential impact. Carve out time to listen and ask questions. An open culture is a healthy culture.
The bottom line
Creating a culture of change takes time and patience. Much like a Digital Evolution, it is a journey that you set out on with your team. It isn’t something that happens overnight. However, those that spend their time focusing on this journey will reap the most rewards.
This article is authored by Mihai Cernei, CTO at Amdaris
