Hospitals Under Pressure: How Technology Can Transform Operations

Hospitals and health systems are being inundated with challenges, and one of the most significant is how to effectively and efficiently operate a clinical pharmacy. Some drug prices have doubled over the past ten years, while others have shown a rise of more than fifteen percent in a single year. Meanwhile, regulatory and compliance expectations are evolving rapidly, and it has become more complex than ever to manage the operational needs necessary to support better outcomes and patient safety. Though more data and information are available, they are typically siloed in various systems that were not designed to support running an optimized business environment. The strain from all these challenges and the shifting sands of healthcare have resulted in an incredible strain on the workforce, with exhaustion and burnout being common in the pharmacy and across the healthcare system.

In the slim operating margins of most hospitals and health systems, accuracy, efficiency, and pharmacy supply chain optimization are critical components of survival. However, continuing to do the same thing we have been doing for years will not yield a different outcome. There are a number of innovative, technology-based solutions presenting opportunities to help optimize operations, and investing in the right technology can provide a significant immediate and long-term ROI. That said, implementing new technologies into any healthcare environment can be challenging, from selecting the right options and vendors to the change management associated with implementation and transitioning toward leveraging performance data to drive ROI. In this article, we will discuss three key considerations for investing in technological and digital transformation to enhance hospital operations.

Deliver programming with change management built upon trust

No conversation about technological transformation can begin without a discussion of change management and the expected hurdles in adoption. Technology serves humans, whether those individuals are providers (such as physicians, nurses, and pharmacists), administrative staff, financial staff, or support staff. Helping humans adapt to process changes is hard, particularly when those changes disrupt a system that has been the standard for decades. Leaders, including administrators outside of the service line where the change is taking place, must actively drive change management while helping the team understand and trust the technology. 

It is important to anticipate and plan for needs that can help a new system run effectively, such as additional staff time, potential operational changes, and other ad-hoc necessities during implementation and transition periods. For example, in a hospital implementing radio frequency identification (RFID)-based tracking, RFID tags need to be added to specific medication inventories. These tags are added at the source or at the facility. This means everyone, from leadership to the staff, may need to make some demonstrated changes to how they schedule and manage their time. Importantly, this must be understood and accounted for ahead of time. Changes like this facilitate the implementation of the new system and will drive immediate value. However, they require support all the way up to leadership, and the entire team has to lean in and understand that beginning a new process requires time to build this new muscle.

In every industry, now more than ever before, people are being exposed to major technological shifts that influence how they work, and most individuals find these changes challenging. A critical element of change management is dedicating the time and energy to training teams to work with new systems. In a study that focused on corporate employees, 40% reported that they felt their employers were asking too much of them when it comes to technologies like AI. In healthcare, where employees are already pushed to their limits, we can imagine that these pressures to adapt to technological changes are extra burdensome. Thus, hospital management must focus attention on how a change is introduced, be realistic about the ways a change will impact employees day-to-day, and administer necessary training. 

Understanding the need for, and taking advantage of, customization and flexibility 

While hospitals and health systems face similar problems with supply chains, costs, and staffing, each facility’s intricate nuances are unique. The services offered, patient populations served, geographic locations, medication surges, and professional capabilities all affect hospital operations. Two hospitals in the same system, in the same city, often have distinctly different needs. While technology can help with critical problems and optimize operations, the best options will have specific workflows with features and capabilities that are flexible enough to be customized for each facility.

Machine Learning (ML) is an example of a software capability that can dramatically increase the value of a technology. ML is better at predicting future behaviors or needs within a specific environment over time because it uses that system’s specific data to improve its algorithms.  The longer the software operates in an ML environment, the more accurate it can become because it has been trained on and has learned from a specific dataset.  

When applied in medication inventory management, ML enables each health system, hospital, and facility to anticipate its own specific medication needs based on its own performance. Customization like this is incredibly useful to pharmacy departments in operating a more efficient and effective business, particularly because many of them pay for medications even if they expire before being used. Instead of overstocking a medication due to concerns about a sudden rise in demand, hospitals can make stocking, ongoing management, and ordering decisions based on the recommendations of a predictive algorithm that has been trained on that hospital’s unique usage data.

Interoperability, or the ability of a technology to share valuable data from within and outside of a hospital, is another customization requirement that is critical in the context of complex hospital systems. For example, if a medication tracking software can be successfully linked to electronic health records (EHR), the process of logging medications administered to patients and acquiring necessary documentation for billing can be simplified, saving practitioners time while improving charge capture. 

Focus on value, not trendiness

The number of technology solutions available for healthcare providers to consider has skyrocketed in the last decade, at an almost dizzying pace. From AI, to predictive analytics to automation technologies, deciding which technologies are the best fit can be incredibly complicated. Trendy software like ChatGPT dominates the news, but optimizing hospital operations isn’t about trendy tech. It’s about finding the solutions that can provide short- and long-term value, and the partners evolving at the pace required to meet the changing demands of healthcare. 

When analyzing technology, consider its role in the system and the needs that will make it a meaningful addition. For example, many hospital pharmacies would benefit from more transparent inventory management and tracking systems to address key gaps. Ideally, this would indicate the need for a system that can provide support with in-depth documentation, medication security (such as narcotic waste disposal), and seamless medication tracking across the hospital. The right technology in this space could dramatically improve hospital pharmacy operations and result in time savings and reduced medication waste, a major source of lost revenue for hospitals. 

The company behind the technology plays an important role in the determination of which tools have staying power. When needs shift, demands change, and systems adjust, it will be the partnership between a hospital system and technology provider that ensures technology solutions continue to solve hospital operations problems in a realistic and meaningful way.

Approach technological optimization with open eyes and the right partner

Now is the time for digital and technological hospital transformations. The pressures on hospitals might be mounting, but technology is here that can provide cost savings, streamline workflows, and save employees’ time. However, technology can be tricky to implement successfully and requires decisions that could reverberate for decades. For ultimate success, hospital administrators must approach technology solutions with open eyes and the right partner to help them navigate the change.

Photo: phototechno, Getty Images

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