The recipe for digital transformation: collaboration and innovation

The day-to-day management of a health system has never been more complex. Patient volumes shift rapidly and unexpectedly, there’s an influx of patient data from a multitude of data sources, and patients are encouraged to seek more personalized, convenient care. Particularly in the wake of telehealth’s boom during the COVID-19 pandemic, many health systems are navigating how to cement this new standard of care, which was once a quick-fix solution during a crisis. And yet, many try to manage this growing complexity with disparate IT infrastructures, mismatched workflows, and limited budget. Overlooking gaps in care or workflows can have long-term effects and presents big challenges as systems aim to coordinate, orchestrate and synchronize care across a system that no longer resides only in a hospital.

While health systems are keenly focused on diagnosing their patients, many could benefit from a self-examination – having an experienced outside partner diagnose their recurring care collaboration challenges, unite stakeholders, identify tailored solutions, and help to optimize workflows. The good news is that the healthcare industry is collectively more open than ever before to adopting new technology and working with their technology partners in new ways, and patients are increasingly interested in exploring different avenues of accessing care.

Intended to support a health system’s digital transformation, Philips Care Collaboration is a collaborative approach, leveraging Philips advanced HealthSuite solutions, to support data and workflows to help deliver efficient care to the right patient, at the right time. It also serves as a process, engagement model, and collection of tools to help an organization traverse this necessary change.

“A health system’s digital transformation doesn’t happen overnight. While adding technological solutions alone may provide momentary relief, it won’t necessarily meet the complex long-term needs of health systems. It takes a strategic vision and a commitment to evolve processes and culture,” said Roy Jakobs, Chief Business Leader, Connected Care, Philips. “We know that each care setting is different, and that the solution required will vary. That’s why we want to serve as a true healthcare partner, helping to build a future-ready solution to the challenges unique to each health system. We’re proud to be that trusted voice for many of our customers, uniting leadership under a common goal and working side-by-side with them to execute it every step of the way.”

The process: combining partnership with innovation

There’s no one-size-fits-all to a healthcare organization’s digital journey – it takes a unique combination of people, technology, information, and a willingness to change. It starts with discovery and an open dialogue to ensure all stakeholders recognize the challenges and buy into the strategic direction of the digital transformation. With Care Collaboration, Philips helps bring those puzzle pieces together and works side-by-side with each organization to establish a common goal, help design and embed new ways of working, and bring innovative technical and clinical solutions that will adapt to evolving needs.

Each partnership is unique to every organization – from helping a health system shape their vision and interviewing c-suite to derive “critical to quality” questions that need to be answered, to helping leadership articulate their pain points, substantiate with data, and build a consensus. From there, Philips works closely with leadership to explore ways to streamline workflow efficiency, help improve utilization of resources, advise on technology strategy and integration, and design an exceptional experience for both patients and staff. This type of tight-knit partnership helps an organization move from a business-as-usual, “managing the now” approach, to one that is forward-facing and focused on continuous improvement, sustainable transformation, and collaborative innovation.

The solutions: end-to-end care transformation

In an ideal world, clinician workflows, operations, and patient care would all work together in harmony so that clinicians and administrators can have a clear view of demand and patient flows across all care settings. But the reality is often very different. Siloed departments, poor visibility across workflows, and a lack of clarity on patient status can create reoccurring issues. Philips’ advanced HealthSuite solutions can help close these gaps, including acute patient management, diagnostic informatics and virtual care. Let’s take two common pieces of customer feedback as examples:  

• “In the wake of the pandemic, we’re struggling to make telehealth a permanent standard of care.”: Health systems are now expected to extend care beyond the walls of a single hospital or department. But to transform care delivery, providers need to not only consider implementing specific virtual care such as a Tele-ICU, but also redefine what it means to “see a clinician” and transform patients’ homes and communities into places to access care regularly. Philips works with leadership to understand enduring gaps, the patient population trying to be reached, and what area of telehealth would the organization benefit from most. This ranges from remote patient monitoring to track the health of their patients at home, to scalable, centralized acute telehealth solutions that extend critical care resources independent of a health facility’s location.
• “It’s difficult to unify staff, patients and departments across our system.”: Taking a holistic view of workflows – from scheduling, diagnosing, treating and beyond – allows for more effective use of staff’s time and equipment, ultimately allowing for greater focus on patients. But health systems face substantial difficulties in exchanging data at the micro and macro level – from devices to departments, from department to department, from hospital to hospital and even into patients' homes. Philips works with each health system to understand the cause behind the lack of visibility, helps foster a culture of collaboration, and strategizes how best to implement solutions that allow for this comprehensive view and provide continuous care and access to data across the health system.
  

The need for the right partner

Health systems need an experienced partner who is adept in spotting needs and opportunities quickly. By partnering with an organization that has a proven track record in design, innovation and clinical care, health systems can gain a trusted advisor to their transformation journey. With over 300 long-term strategic partnerships with a broad range of healthcare organizations worldwide, Philips’ heritage is steeped in lasting and trusting partnerships that help organizations grow while making a meaningful impact on patient outcomes.

For more information on Philips’ full portfolio of informatics solutions being showcased during the HIMSS21 Global Health Conference & Exhibition, please visit www.philips.com/himss and follow @PhilipsLiveFrom for #HIMSS21 updates throughout the event.