What is Change Management in Healthcare? 

Rapid growth in innovation and technology is compelling the healthcare industry to manage disruption, streamline workflow, and adjust various other processes in the workflow. The change management allows them to adjust their system and technology up-to-date; it would be inconsistent without it. Today, we’ll discuss what is change management in healthcare; its importance, implementation steps; how to manage it, and challenges to the industry.

What is Change Management in Healthcare? 

Change management offers you a step-by-step systematic method that helps healthcare companies to change and upgrade their workflow and processes without any disruption. It requires collective effort and collaboration among the top level, first line, and various other stakeholders of the company in order to successfully execute the changes in the healthcare industry.

Transition becomes necessary when the team, people, processes, tools, equipment, and technology aren’t delivering the required results and not meeting the expectations of the company.

Many healthcare companies and non-profit organizations operating in the healthcare industry have got a specific vision and mission to influence and impact the society they’re serving and targeting. Businesses and organizations employ change management strategies both internally and externally while serving the target market.

The nature and design of change management are to promote innovation and creativity in order to develop new methods of thinking and behaving. Clinical research and development bring new methods and strategies and political influence attracts funding. However, change management is a consistent process throughout the strategic development phase in the public and private healthcare industry.

Benefits & Importance of Change Management in Healthcare 

Change management in the healthcare industry is significant and beneficial because of the following reason;

• Helps organizations to achieve their goals and objectives
• Reducing the resistance level among the healthcare staff
• Establish structured and well-focused CM plans and strategies for the healthcare executives to achieve their desired goals and objectives
• Eliminates the stress, confusion, and anxiety level during the organizational transition phase
• Brings everyone on board from top to bottom of the organization and it amplifies user engagement level to achieve common goals and objectives
• Improves the culture in the healthcare organization for the success of the organizational change management program

Implementation of Change Management in Healthcare – Steps 

Some of the key steps involved in the implementation of change management in the healthcare industry are as follows;

• Recognizing the reason why the healthcare organization needs change and communicating it across the organization
• Connecting and engaging with various stakeholders at a different level of the organization
• Developing and creating a roadmap for the change and transitional phase
• Collecting and inviting staff members and employees to implement the change program
• Embracing the change and removing issues and obstacles
• Launching the change program and analyzing change and progress
• Streamlining and aligning the company’s structure with the new vision and mission
• Making sure that you are supporting the change and transition initiative in the long term

Managing Change in Healthcare 

Let’s discuss how to manage change effectively in healthcare organizations, some of the main steps are as follows;

Communicate Effectively

Many of the change initiative programs fail due to the lack of communication among various stakeholders of the company. It is significant to establish the right communication goals and objectives for every member of the organization from the start. You should clearly communicate their roles and responsibilities from top to bottom of the organization.

Usually, healthcare organizations employ email as their primary source of communication, but the email open rate is 21.72% in the healthcare industry. The best strategy is to employ such a platform that is accessible to various members and employees of the company.

Developing Unified Experience

Businesses and companies in various industries are employing such technology to offer a unified and integrated experience to their customers and employees. The healthcare industry is no exception because customers want to know the data about their health status and other relevant data at their fingertips. For instance, gadgets like the Apple Watch serve as health band by allowing people to track their blood pressure and heartbeat, and other indicators.

Embracing Digital Transition

Businesses and organizations are employing the latest technology for the efficiency of their resources and processes. Employees in the healthcare industry are growing and they need to perform various administrative duties to facilitate frontline workers and doctors. However, some of the key applications they employ are as follows;

• Medical equipment management software
• e-prescribing software
• Medical diagnosis software
• Medical database software

They employ the abovementioned tools and software to offer actionable solutions, maintenance of resources, and track the record of patients.

Challenges to Change Management in Healthcare 

High Resistance

Research studies have shown that change management is more difficult to implement in the healthcare industry than in any other field. It is because clinical and administrative staff and employees are highly cautious about their work. They have a suspicious attitude towards the senior administration and are highly resistant to strategic change.

Rigid Attitude

Employees in the healthcare industry have a strong sense of ownership, and their rigid attitude would jeopardize the entire change initiative. However, it makes you feel that the change program is working in the beginning, but it would fail in the long term.

Complicated Structure

The other reason that the change program fails in the organization is because of the complicated organization; it hinders the communication flow at different levels of the company. However, it is especially true if the communication is flowing from top to bottom.

No Systematic Procedure

Chang management program is difficult to launch in the healthcare industry because they don’t follow the systematic procedure and process while performing the following tasks;

• Disruptions in the workflow
• Long-term engagement of employees
• Delegating and allocating tasks and duties
• Getting ready in case of any setbacks
• Establishing evaluation standards for benchmarking

Conclusion: What is Change Management in Healthcare? 

After an in-depth study of what is change management in healthcare industry; we have realized that CM is highly significant for various types of businesses and industries. If you are learning about CM in the healthcare industry, then you should keep in mind the abovementioned benefits, challenges, and managing strategies.