As companies and industries slowly emerge from the pandemic, many leaders are re-examining their operating models—especially those in the healthcare sector.

There are many challenges and opportunities: to reduce the burnout of the nursing team; to flourish in an increasingly consumer-centric and value-based nursing environment; to stay ahead of new and increasing cybersecurity threats; to improve efficiency while reducing costs; Grasp and use the latest developments in artificial intelligence and process automation.

The pandemic has not brought these challenges to healthcare organizations, they have already become a reality. What the pandemic has done is to a large extent opened the curtain on all of them. These problems still exist when the dust and debris of the crisis begin to clear, but now may require more urgent attention, because the pandemic has occupied our hearts for more than a year.

A common opportunity runs through all these challenges: Information technology can play a key role in the available solutions for leaders to overcome these challenges.

But IT can also be the problem. The pandemic may have caused healthcare leaders to retreat for about 16 months in seriously addressing these issues, but we are already behind-compared with other industries such as banking and transportation, healthcare as an industry has been behind in IT innovation for many years. .

This article is an introduction to a process-based weekly series of articles, discussing solutions and strategies to promote business improvement, focusing on how to integrate information technology into work. In each article, I will define key themes, explore the problems it is trying to solve, examine the impact on healthcare, and then propose solutions based on real-world experience. Topics will include:

• The increasing burnout of all clinicians (not just doctors) not only affects patient care, but also affects the health of the entire organization. This is not just medical error or personnel turnover, although these are serious problems. As Juneja and Sangwin wrote in a recent article: “In short, if you are not satisfied with the value-based contract care team, you will get paid less” (Juneja & Sangwin, 2021). I will explore what can be done about this.
• Demand for hosting services. On the basis of the previous theme, we have seen many customers express their needs for managed services and outsourcing to expand and manage costs, especially in doctors’ practice. This includes functions such as help desk, billing, payroll, and data entry. The managed service aims to improve its operations in terms of speed, efficiency and accuracy. Similarly, more time to accompany patients and less time to do paperwork and bargaining with insurance companies means better pay and opportunities for increased satisfaction.
• What can we do with population health and precision medicine? Can you find a solution that allows them to live together peacefully? Can we improve the results of individuals and groups at the same time through parallel actions? I will examine both sides of this challenge. During the pandemic, this challenge was closely scrutinized due to significant failures across the country. I will propose data-driven, process-centric solutions in this field.
• Recruit and retain top talent in the world after the pandemic. We often talk about doctors and nurses in this situation, but we often forget the white-collar workers in the mix—financial staff and operations staff. The pandemic has provided us with a new concept of work and workplace. Is the future live, virtual, or a mixture of the two? Regardless of the model adopted, finding and retaining appropriate human resources is crucial.
• Robotic process automation. RPA is committed to providing services to our customers, whether they are patients, doctors or managers. Opportunities include implementing IT help desk chat boxes, managing records, managing inventory, and improving revenue cycle functions, including billing, claims, appointment scheduling, and accounts payable.
• Adapt to new and increasing cyber security threats. Network security threats, especially ransomware attacks, have been increasing recently, and the healthcare system has long been an easy target. The more complex the attack, the more vulnerable health care is. Several proven solutions will be provided.

This is just part of this series of articles that I will show in the next 10 weeks. There are many challenges outside, but they are not necessarily overwhelming. Next week, I will begin to explore the integration of population health and precision medicine, and whether there can be parallel solutions to improve the personal health and overall health of our community.

More coming soon…