STORIES & SOLUTIONS FOR THE MODERN BUSINESS USER

A recent POLITICO article describes how “virus hunters” (public health experts charged with tracking infectious diseases like COVID-19) are forced to use archaic, 20th century technologies to investigate cases and share their findings: fax machines and Excel spreadsheets. Granted, there is no mention of typewriters and rotary phones, but still, it’s reasonable to expect much better. So, what’s the problem? Why is it that we can withdraw money from an ATM anywhere in the world, but we can’t easily share COVID-19 lab results between hospitals located across the street from one another? In other words, why can’t healthcare information technology “interoperate”?

Not too far in the distant past, the economy was going gangbusters. Companies were thriving, the stock market was at the highest of highs, and unemployment at an all-time low. In 2020, this all changed. The COVID-19 pandemic rocked our world.

As a result of the COVID-19 public health emergency, many healthcare institutions are struggling with cash flow. Elective procedures have been postponed and non-critical patients are electing to stay home rather than seek treatment. Hospitals facing a cash crunch can maximize cash flow through their EHR and other operational initiatives. Here are six things you can do right now to improve cash flow during these challenging times.

I’ve been accused of being a geek. I’m not sure why. But anyway, last week I was listening to a podcast about emojis. You know – emojis (or emoji if you prefer that as the plural): those cute little cartoony characters that are typically used in texts to convey meaning. Instead of texting the words “Thanks so much,” you can simply text 🙏. In fact, it’s possible to string together a complete dialog with a series of emojis. Imagine that some patients get a 🦠 and have to take an 🚑 to go to the 🏥. There, the patient is taken care of by a ‍👩‍⚕️ and hopefully they’ll get better and go home following safe practices and looking like 😷.

So, You Implemented Telemedicine. Now What?

In partnership with Sonder Health, Avaap is providing a three-part series for healthcare organizations that rapidly moved to implement a telehealth solution at the onset of COVID-19 and have since dealt with a surge of virtual visits. Make sure to catch up on Part I and Part II of the series.  

Earlier this week, I had an opportunity to sit down with Jeff Brown and Jason Wood from Avaap (formerly Navigator Management Partners). Avaap is an Alteryx partner and they are currently working with the state of Ohio to help run the InnovateOhio Platform.

So, You Implemented Telemedicine. Now What?

In partnership with Sonder Health, Avaap is providing a three-part series for healthcare organizations that rapidly moved to implement a telehealth solution at the onset of COVID-19 and have since dealt with a surge of virtual visits. Make sure to catch up on Part I of the series highlighting a few simple guidelines for starting your telemedicine program.  

Navigating change management in any sector presents challenges such as maintaining employee engagement or training and communication. Regardless of sector, the overarching goals of change management are to increase the likelihood of project success and minimize risk and disruption. Implementing change management in the public sector does, however, come with some unique challenges.

With the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC), American Medical Association (AMA), and other medical specialties recommending a halt on non-essential medical encounters, the adoption of telemedicine has shifted into over-drive. According to research from Frost and Sullivan, March telehealth visits surged 50 percent amid the pandemic. Analysts now expect general medical care visits to top 200 million this year, up sharply from their original expectation of 36 million visits for all of 2020.

“Cloud is not the future – it’s now. It’s an enabling force for business evolution that goes beyond technology, allowing organizations to more efficiently and effectively reengineer the company’s corporate strategy.” -Goodburn & Hill