It's already almost time to plan for a new year, and as 2015 heads toward its final stretch, stakeholders in the healthcare industry already are looking at what areas to focus on in 2016.
In a recent post to his Life as a Healthcare CIO blog, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center CIO John Halamka outlines some of the things learned this year that could shape planning at his and other facilities in 2016.
Three areas to address in next year include:
- Lessening the workload: Currently, Meaningful Use, reaching quality measures, population health, patient engagement and more are overwhelming healthcare professionals, Halamka writes. In 2016, there should be a focus on making workflows and workloads easier through projects and innovation.
- Increasing use of the cloud: "The cloud is clearly the way that people want to work," Halamka writes. There are a lot of forces driving its use, such as easier file sharing, convenience and device support. As the cloud's use increases, the health industry must learn as much as it can about the tool, and services like Amazon Web Services.
- Paying attention to the user: Large-scale projects like ICD-10 and the Affordable Care Act can be hard on users, "forcing them to accept decreased short-term service for long-term gains," he writes. Initiatives like Meaningful Use Stage 3 need to be delayed and providers need to be given more time to catch up with all the project thrown their way.
Many in the industry have called for a delay of MU Stage 3, including the American Medical Association, the Medical Group Management Association and a slew of chief information officers.
To learn more:
- here's Halamka's post