Empowering Employees through Digital Transformation and Process Improvement

By Teray Johnson, Director, Data Automation and Transformation, Lifepoint Health

An overwhelming number of technologies in healthcare exist today. Healthcare and hospital executives receive numerous calls daily from vendors about the value of their technologies to streamline workflows and improve productivity. Once healthcare leaders choose or develop the best software to serve their employees and patients, the arduous journey of digital transformation begins.

IBM defines digital transformation as the incorporation of technology throughout the organization. Digital transformation requires high acuity in change management, emotional intelligence, and continuous improvement. Current workflows must be scrutinized to identify opportunities for improvement.

At Lifepoint Health, nurses, providers, hospital leaders, process engineers, systems and data analysts, administrative employees, and others from a variety of teams collaborate to serve patients better and are united around a shared mission of making communities healthier. Lifepoint serves diverse communities of all sizes, including those in rural and underserved areas across the United States. Historically, hospitals in these areas have not had access to technologies or data to optimize operations. Most of these hospitals have been using paper records to track patient information, such as orders, which has resulted in unstandardized workflows and repetitive processes. To improve the efficiency of workflows and resolve the resulting issues, such as scheduling orders above the benchmark period, technologies have been integrated into workflows to improve the patient experience while reducing employees’ workloads.

Process improvement techniques have been essential to implementing these new technologies in Lifepoint’s markets. The company’s Enterprise Transformation Office, which is dedicated to process improvement, has several process engineers who have mapped the current and future states of their workflows with and without new technology, respectively. Furthermore, they involve the subject matter experts and users in each step of the design and implementation. If technology is implemented, the process has not ended; users are encouraged to refine processes and identify how the technology could improve continually. Doing so has empowered employees to make decisions about their workflows, resulting in higher job satisfaction and engagement.

Even though digital transformation is difficult, involving multidisciplinary teams with diverse skill sets and ways of thinking has made the path smoother.

Ordering System Implementation

One of Lifepoint’s projects involved implementing an ordering system that transformed the process of creating orders from paper to electronic. Teammates from the revenue cycle department, Enterprise Transformation Office, data and analytics department, and hospitals have been paramount to the project’s success. At each step, representatives from most of these departments, ranging from schedulers to managers, have been involved in the decision-making process. Process improvement techniques, such as mapping workflows, demonstrate how the technology will streamline and reduce their workloads while allowing more patients to schedule appointments. Several users have been involved in piloting the technology and, thus, identifying areas of improvement.

Dashboards with data showing how many appointments were scheduled, how many orders were completed, the cycle times between when orders were received and scheduled, and other metrics that users identified as important are being used daily by managers and other hospital leaders. This data has helped managers make decisions, understand how productivity has increased since the technology was implemented, and answer questions from leadership and other leaders interested in implementing the technology in their practices and hospitals. Before using the technology, they did not have an automated way to track metrics. After hearing about the technology’s benefits from peers in the field, several managers have asked the Enterprise Transformation Office if they can be next on the list to implement the technology in their own practices and hospitals, which is a testament to its success.

Using Technology to Empower Employees

Digital transformation has improved the organization at all levels. Productivity has increased across the organization because of the implementation of these new technologies. For example, one data analyst has saved four hours of analysis each day because one of the tools has a report that automatically gathers and analyzes the necessary data. Hospital leaders have access to the report, and it can be automatically e-mailed to the leaders on a regular basis. Employees have been thankful for these new technologies to serve patients better. A scheduling manager could answer real-time questions from a practice’s leaders about the scheduling process by using the dashboard with data from the ordering technology. Due to Lifepoint’s collaborative culture, employees often provide leaders with new ideas for metrics and technology enhancements.

Patient satisfaction is expected to increase as a result of these new technologies. Because patient access representatives can schedule lab orders on a timelier basis, patients can receive treatment more quickly, which can be the difference between a higher or lower quality of life.

Lessons Learned

Lifepoint Health’s leaders and employees have learned valuable lessons while implementing new technologies.

• Piloting is key to success. Pilots identify potential issues before the technology is implemented in all areas of the organization. Moreover, piloting has enabled data analysts and users to identify the most important metrics to include on dashboards.
• Data is needed to make the best decisions. Before the technology was implemented, users and leaders did not have the data from their paper ordering systems to see how many appointments were made, the average amount of time to schedule an order, and other important measures of productivity and patient care. Technologies have enabled the collection of these metrics, which empowers employees to make data-driven decisions.
• Employee testimonials are powerful. Champions of the technology – preferably employees in the same positions as the users – are necessary to gain buy-in and lead their peers in implementing and learning how to use the technology. Top-down decision-making is not effective when improving processes. Having champions makes other employees feel as though their own peers were involved in the technology’s development and implementation instead of it being mandated by executives. Additionally, word-of-mouth has increased interest in the technology, and employees are now asking if their sites can gain access to the tools next.

Even though digital transformation is difficult, involving multidisciplinary teams with diverse skill sets and ways of thinking has made the path smoother. Focusing on improving patient care and equipping employees to excel have empowered teams to overcome challenges. With teams working together to implement and use technology to help advance care and deliver positive patient outcomes, Lifepoint is moving ever closer to fulfilling its mission of making communities healthier.