Not All Medical Advances Are About Medicine. Case in Point: Digital Work

Everyone feels more pressure than ever to adopt value-based care. You face constant change in technology and regulations, along with the inherent risk in keeping up. There’s a good possibility that your staff is burning themselves out trying to get it all done.

Fortunately, there’s a pathway to creating exceptional patient experiences, and it starts with integrating your digital work strategies.

What? You didn’t see that one coming? The right approach to digital work has the power to improve the health of your entire organization, from IT to security to HR. Oxford Economics and Citrix recently completed a study that surveyed 600 IT and business executives about their digital work strategies. The research findings show that digital workplace strategies improve performance. However, many respondents have not yet done enough to make the shift and accommodate the new technology, policies and culture that are required to take full advantage of these developments. We’ve summarized some key findings from this study. If you prefer an infographic, you can download it here.

Mobile Maturity on the Rise

Fewer than half of organizations are getting the most out of their mobile technology and remote work functionality. Ten years into the smartphone era, most companies have invested in this technology without transforming how they do business. But change is coming and fast, with mobile maturity expected to increase sharply over the next three years. Approximately 70 percent of healthcare organizations feel that their mobile technology securing methods are highly mature.

The digital workspace will rise with this surge in mobile maturity. Employees will spend more time working remotely and with flexible schedules. Organizations will adapt by using mobile-first business processes that get the most out of this new working environment.

The healthcare organizations that develop specific strategies to support this digital work will enjoy a wide range of improvements, from employee productivity to profitability. Some ways to accomplish this include putting new security procedures in place, supporting off-site environments, managing contingent employees and handling burnout with staff who are now always connected. In 2020, nearly 45 percent of businesses, up from 23 percent today, will have cohesive, integrated mobility strategies.

Business Strategy and Value

Your organization must implement sound strategies for virtual work to realize its full value. You also need objective ways to measure this value. Security, cost concerns and cultural issues offer several challenges that you need to overcome.

Think beyond the latest devices when you consider mobility. Your focus needs to be on business models, processes and even the design and layout of your facilities. Don’t add mobile technology onto existing processes, or worse, do nothing at all.

Digital workspace leaders are more likely to put together cohesive and integrated mobile strategies from scratch, with results that make the effort worth it. You end up with improved efficiency, profitability, patient satisfaction and business agility. Additionally, digital work improves your staff’s problem-solving abilities, customer service, collaboration and stress management, with 90 percent of respondents reporting this. Healthcare respondents found that employee engagement rose to 75 percent, innovation went to 72 percent, and quality of work improved to 69 percent.

Burnout is reduced when workers can take care of their personal business, as long as they finish their tasks throughout the day. Seventy-seven percent of digital workspace leaders have this policy in place.

You also broaden your talent pool, with 86 percent of digital workspace leaders mentioning that their virtual work culture brings in superior talent and allows them to retain these top performers.

When your clinician satisfaction improves, so will your patient satisfaction. Download the infographic “The top two digital work priorities in healthcare“ to learn more.

Ever wonder about what clinicians think about security and the digital workplace? We did too. So we collaborated with HIMSS Analytics to survey clinicians and find out if they ever brought in unauthorized technology to the workplace. The results may surprise you. Join us for a webinar hosted by HIMSS, “Bring Your Own Tech to Work: Risks, Rewards and Realities for Healthcare” to see the results of that survey and learn best practices to securely enable the use of clinician-owned technology.