12 Pitfalls in the Digital Transformation of U.S. Hospitals (Part III): Insights from Dr.2’s 'Mobile Healthcare Insights' and Deloitte Report

Reading Notes on the Deloitte Report — Excerpt from Dr. 2’s New Book *The Ins and Outs of Mobile Health*

Myth 9: Wait until sufficient data has been accumulated before adding analysis and reporting

Fact: Basic analytics and reporting capabilities must be regarded as a critical requirement in the early stages of digitalization projects.

Over the past two decades, attention has been focused on electronic systems for patient data collection and storage. Now, with a vast amount of electronic data available, the focus has shifted to analyzing this data to unlock its insights and enhance clinical decision-making, research, and hospital management.

A digital hospital’s technology strategy must treat these requirements as “core,” necessitating the early development of a plan to properly leverage business intelligence (BI) and various analytical tools. However, this endeavor still faces two critical challenges: data quality and data accessibility.

Ensuring data quality, particularly when integrating data from disparate sources, is challenging. This is due to the traditional, fragmented IT environments established by healthcare institutions and insufficient data standardization. The limited application of data analytics and reporting within healthcare organizations is another critical issue that digital hospitals must address. Historically, data analytics and reporting were handled by statisticians or IT departments, meaning that the utilization and maximization of information value often depended on individual physicians’ capabilities. In the future, more user-friendly systems should be established to allow clinicians independent access to structured reports for individual patients or cohort information. This will enable them to leverage existing data to improve healthcare quality, rather than waiting until substantial data has been accumulated before initiating analysis and reporting.

Myth 10: Clinicians can only access patient information through the systems and equipment of digital hospitals

Fact: Clinicians wish to use their own devices at work to access patient information more conveniently.

Clinicians need to access patient information anytime and anywhere, expecting such data to be easily accessible and viewable. Consequently, there is a growing demand among them to perform clinical tasks on their personal mobile devices or through systems outside the hospital environment. This is particularly true for clinicians working across multiple healthcare institutions or operating in emergency settings. They may be located at other healthcare facilities, at home, in their offices, or even in different states or countries.

Using one’s own laptop or tablet is more convenient and familiar. Many clinicians wish to integrate patient information from hospitals into their personal clinical information systems. Hospitals will give greater consideration to this new model, establishing mechanisms to ensure point-to-point compliance with security policies and standards. Of course, hospitals still face three major challenges:

• Not all patient data is stored in electronic format; in most hospitals (and some newly built ones), electronic and paper-based information materials are mixed, depending on the tools used.
• Not all electronic data is stored in a single location. Patient and clinical data are typically dispersed across multiple patient, clinical, and specialty systems, which lack seamless interoperability.
• Not all electronic information shares the same structure and meaning. Hospitals often employ varying standards, formats, and patient identification systems, resulting in “information silos” that cannot be easily integrated or correlated. To enable clinicians to access patient information through their own systems or devices, hospitals must establish a common core system incorporating structured and standardized data formats. This system should facilitate information sharing with mobile devices and other external clinical information systems within a secure and interoperable environment.

Myth 11: Mobile solutions are “good enough if they just work”

Fact: Clinicians are frequently on the move in their daily practice; therefore, mobility must form the foundation of future technology strategies.

Clinicians always hope to obtain the desired information in a timely manner at critical junctures, yet they are often constantly “on the move.” Therefore, in digital hospitals, personal smart terminals and integrated clinical information systems provide physicians with enhanced information accessibility and integration. As such, mobility will hold significant strategic importance, rather than serving merely as an external supplement. Mobile healthcare requires technical architectures to address certain issues, particularly:

• Ensure that access to the device can be obtained at any appropriate time.
• Access to core hospital systems and data resources
• User-Centric Mobile Applications

Clinicians require a combination of mobile and fixed devices; therefore, user terminal devices must be integrated into the hospital’s overall technology strategy, addressing issues such as technical support, access, security, and privacy. The model of end-user devices will impact the following:

• Hospital technical infrastructure requirements, particularly wired and wireless network infrastructure, must support a variety of mobile and fixed devices.
• Design of hospital technical environments, such as the layout of different medical systems.

Mobility is not merely about developing apps for smartphones and tablets; it refers to the comprehensive construction of hospital applications and technological architecture, which influences the selection of new applications and technology platforms. Many hospitals still rely on legacy systems and platforms that cannot be easily replaced or do not support mobile devices; therefore, these hospitals also require holistic integration solutions.

Myth 12: Focusing solely on improving systems and processes will deliver high-value solutions and services

Fact: The success of digital transformation hinges on the application of a patient-centric “outside-in” approach in design.

Hospitals and other healthcare institutions have placed excessive emphasis on improving systems and processes to enhance operational efficiency and patient experience. However, due to limited budgets and staffing constraints, a single investment or transformation initiative rarely achieves simultaneous improvements in healthcare quality, efficiency, and patient experience. In fact, changes to internal systems or efficiency-driven innovations often compromise the patient experience. Such changes—for example, eliminating an option or mandating a behavioral shift—may inadvertently create barriers for users. If these changes accumulate over time, they can ultimately lead to patient dissatisfaction and undermine service sustainability. This, in turn, has adverse consequences for healthcare professionals.

Improvements to internal systems and processes are often referred to as “inside-out” transformation. This “inside-out” approach has indeed delivered substantial benefits across many industries. However, hospitals differ from other organizations in that they have a clear mission: to serve patients’ health and medical needs. Both clinicians and healthcare institutions prioritize patients’ health outcomes above all else. Therefore, hospital digitalization should integrate a “patient-centric” approach with improvements in the quality of medical services, while minimizing any compromise on efficiency. From the patient’s perspective, this transformation is thus “outside-in.”

Prior to implementing solutions, hospitals should adopt an “outside-in” approach to service planning and delivery, focusing on identifying customer pain points, needs, and expectations. Once patient needs and experiences are validated, hospitals can concentrate on the systems and processes that most effectively meet user requirements. Articulating a patient-centered philosophy and layout will help foster a positive healthcare culture, encouraging medical professionals to integrate sincerity, responsibility, and creativity in addressing patient issues.

Another critical step is to implement a User-Centered Design (UCD) approach. This methodology equips healthcare professionals with the knowledge, tools, and communication techniques necessary to align expectations and objectives, ensuring the project stays on track and instilling confidence in participants as they translate concepts into actionable plans. Our core values are defined by end-user optimism, active engagement of medical staff, and the delivery of an optimal user experience. By improving patient experience through an “outside-in” approach, we embody the true hallmark of a “Digital Hospital.”

Conclusion:

“Digital Hospital” is a key component of the transformation and reform of the healthcare system, thereby enabling a planned, coherent, digital transformation driven by the interests of clinicians, partners, and patients.

Digital transformation in hospitals often lacks predictable roadmaps and blueprints, as superior intelligent technologies, digital systems, and equipment continually become available for purchase; however, this may also lead to the emergence of automation silos and increased fragmentation of patient clinical data.

To maximize the success of digital transformation, clinicians and healthcare/ICT management must collaborate to define an achievable vision that aligns with the hospital’s strategy for meeting healthcare needs through patient care, clinical research, and education. A fair assessment of the current environment is crucial, including existing technology investments, available funding, potential risks, and staff capabilities.

Once the vision is clearly defined, it provides a foundation for developing a focused strategy and announcing strategic and tactical proposals and plans. The key to this step lies in aligning investments and business model transformations with the interests of all stakeholders, gradually refining existing systems, and formulating a ten-year plan for digital infrastructure. For instance, this involves leveraging mobile technologies, big data, and cloud computing to support new workflows while addressing the accompanying security challenges. Meanwhile, applying digital strategies to integrated services presents significant hurdles, such as determining how information should be transmitted across traditional hospitals or departments and how to break down the boundaries between public and private sectors.

12 Pitfalls in the Development of Hospital Information Technology in the United States (Part I)

12 Pitfalls in the Development of Hospital Information Systems in the United States (Part II)

(This article was first published on NetEase Technology and republished by VCBeat with authorization from the author, Dr. 2. Dr. 2 is the Chairman of MediCool Medical Software Company; WeChat ID: 1340603421)