Is the Pandemic Leading Your Digital Transformation?

Over the past few weeks, I have seen a number of health systems quickly embrace digital solutions to help serve their communities. Rapidly deployed telemedicine initiatives to offer online consults and triage care. Expanded social media efforts to engage in real-time communication with employees and the media. Embracing video conferencing to connect a distributed workforce now working from home.

Many of these initiatives were stood up quickly, and I applaud the efforts of digital teams in their successes in these regard (and in the case of telemedicine, I also commend the sudden changes in legislation to expand reimbursement and remove the barriers of licensure to make this happen).

This public health crisis has done a number of things to our industry. Who would have thought it would have been such a boon in driving digital transformation? As I postulated in a recent podcast -  now these solutions are launched, there is no turning back. Is that true of all digital efforts? Has this pandemic rapidly digital transformation in health systems?

Over the last ten years, I have worked with health systems to help them embrace digital transformation – in many different ways.

At first, to support marketing/communications - launching integrated websites for large health systems; developing scalable social media strategies to connect and engage audiences and put a human face to our brands.

Then, expanding outside the marketing suite, partnering with IT to optimize digital touchpoints seamlessly integrated with back-end tools and systems (so-called “digital front door” initiatives).

Even further, I have led digital initiatives to optimize patient experience efforts, leading projects to digitize call centers with chatbots, websites and social media presences. I have been part of teams on system-wide data and analytics projects that standardized clinical, operational and CRM to provide real-time business insights. I even had the chance to work on a team revamping a service-line care-pathway using digital user experience design best-practices.

Through all of this digital work, I have come to realize a few things:

• Digital transformation efforts come in all sizes, big and small. All of these initiatives include a systemic change in more than just technology (they typically involve changes in processes, data and analytics, and – most importantly – in people and culture).

• These efforts are not easy (and they can’t happen rapidly). They usually are rolled out in a series of iterative phases, with deliberate long-term planning to improve interactions with your customers and optimizing your business performance.

• Each transformation is unique – combining your existing internal and external resources with identifying the right opportunities to see short and long-term wins.

There is one thing that isn’t unique, though: each initiative is only successful if it’s solidly rooted in understanding your customer’s needs and how your organization can help best to solve those needs.

While many of these recently launched digital efforts are solving immediate problems, I wonder if organizations have taken the time to truly understand their impact when the crisis has been averted. Or is the toothpaste out of the tube?

Chris Boyer

The original version of this page was published at:  http://www.christopherboyer.com/thoughts/2020/4/3/is-the-pandemic-leading-your-digital-transformation