Work with IT staff to make telemedicine adoption smooth and successful

by | May 31, 2016 | Blog

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Work with IT staff to make telemedicine adoption smooth and successful

Integrating new technology into your practice’s daily workflow can bring about better treatment opportunities as well as reduce inefficiencies. Telemedicine makes it possible to deliver care to new communities, while eliminating the costs and burdens related to travel and improving the coordination of appointments with patients that may be hundreds of miles away.

As beneficial as a new telemedicine program or other technology-based initiative may be to your practice, it is critical to work with your IT department and other team members to ensure the adoption process is smooth and comprehensive. Odds are your internal IT staff is going to be a major resource in making any new technological endeavor successful. Here are a few things to keep in mind when bringing your IT department into the fold during telemedicine adoption.

Connect your staff with your vendor
Partnering with the right telemedicine provider can make a world of difference, and by working with your vendor, your administrative team and IT staff can build a strong understanding of the technology and software that make telemedicine successful.

Work with your team to make sure the adoption process is smooth.

Give your staff the opportunity to coordinate questions and concerns that can be addressed by your telemedicine vendor. In this way, they can begin to build familiarity with the program by understanding everything fully. In the same way a doctor wants to know the inner workings of the human body, if your IT staff is going to be responsible for supporting your telemedicine program, these individuals should be given the time to discover as much as they can.

Rely on your IT staff during training
While your clinical and administrative staff members are being trained on your new telemedicine program, make sure that your IT team is as involved as possible.

“Training sessions will make sure that your staff is comfortable and ready to use any new technology.”

Telemedicine devices are easy to use and the interface is intuitive for almost any user, but your IT department will still need to be identified as a point of contact should any internal questions arise. By giving these individuals an opportunity to support or lead your initial training sessions, they can begin to build a framework for what this help looks like.

Training sessions will make sure that your staff is comfortable and ready to use any new technology or devices, and by working with your IT team, you can help build familiarity across the board. There are logistical considerations to make whenever adopting a new software or amending daily workflow, but making sure your staff is prepared is just as crucial. As Annex Med reported, the integration of new technology is key for a healthy practice, but it needs to be done methodically to be successful.

Involve your IT team with long-term planning
It is important that you lay-out specific goals related to the implementation of a telemedicine program, and asking for the guidance from your IT team is a way to make sure these sort of projections are reasonable and well-founded. The National Learning Consortium reported that setting long-term goals is a critical step in launching any technological program.

Your technology specialists and members of the telemedicine training program can likely pin-point any growing pains or learning curve that is specific to your staff. Likewise, once they become familiar with the devices and software, they will be able to give you accurate predictions for what is possible of the course of the coming quarter.

Use this information to identify a few metrics or goals you would like to achieve over the course of the next few weeks. By working with your IT staff, you can have more realistic expectations and make the entire implementation process as smooth as possible.

“AMD is a telehealth company that has always been dependable, and extremely knowledgeable in assisting with choosing the right equipment to meet our needs. Their customer service and technical support of our programs has been impeccable.”

Dr. Lisa Gwynn

Interim Division Chief, Child and Adolescent Health / University of Miami Miller School of Medicine

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