The job of a healthcare CIO is a tough one. You’ve fought hard to get critical decision-makers to accept your proposal for a new EHR. But now, you are facing criticisms for adequate interoperability. You know you’ve done your best, and a few EHR interfaces have been developed. However, you realize that you need an EMR interface specialist to fast-track your interface development and deliver the benefits of your investment in a new EHR.
How do you convince your executive management team and other stakeholders about hiring an interface development expert? Here are some tips that can help.
1. Use Language that Your Executive Team Can Understand
Your executive team (which you may be a part of) has the authority to approve or cancel your integration projects. They are constantly thinking about the strategic management of budgets and operations.
While many of the team members will be interested in an IT project that will improve efficiency and cut costs, they are seldom interested in technical jargon. Keep the IT technical terms to a minimum and discuss the expected outcome of your partnership with an integration specialist.
2. Present Data that Shows How Integration Will Increase Profits
Your organization’s leaders have to weigh the needs of the hospital alongside the need to raise profits. They will be captivated by data that forecasts a substantial return on investment in interoperability.
Spice up your presentation with tons of data showing how costs will continue to drop after receiving approval for your interoperability project. Use conservative estimates and avoid presenting a scenario that’s too good to be true.
Let your executives see how effective information sharing will cut down manual tasks, save time, and increase the number of patients served daily.
3. Show How Integration Will Reduce Unpaid Claims
The leaders who manage finance are inundated with patient billing, cost reduction, and data analytics issues. They will embrace a solution that will aid the management of patient billing and reduce monthly accounting problems.
Let them know that without integrated systems, it will be challenging to pull patient data together for error-free billing.
To communicate the value of interoperability to this group, focus on improving billing processes. Tell them that fewer patient billing claims will be delayed as a result of your system integration project.
4. Make a Case for Analytics and Better Decision Making
Integration projects in a hospital provide comprehensive data for analytics. Let your decision-makers know that most of the information they need to plan and make smarter business decisions are locked up in data silos in different departments.
Show how the new interfaces will enable your organization to pull all the data into a single database. Then give a brief preview of the type and quality of reports you can generate for more thoughtful planning and decision making.
5. Convince Clinicians that Integration Will Improve Care Quality
Your organization’s primary purpose is to provide care to patients. That’s what matters most to doctors, nurses, and other clinical staff.
However, when clinicians are spending more time searching for accurate patient information, they can’t meet this objective effectively. Today, many physicians are overwhelmed by data entry tasks, and they have to work with multiple applications for diagnosis, treatment, data entry, prescription, and follow-up.
These tips offer you simple but effective ideas for persuading different executive team members about the need for a comprehensive data integration project. Working with an expert can make the project a viable and successful one.
Talk to an EMR Interface Specialist Today
Call Lifepoint Informatics at 877.522.8378 to see a live demo of our healthcare data integration engine. You can also reach out to us through our contact page and book a free consultation.