Technology and efficiency are moving at a faster pace than ever before, and in healthcare IT, that means an emerging need for IT teams to be at the forefront of system assessment and implementation.
Your team should be actively partnering with the clinical team and other decision makers on how to improve and optimize workflows and interconnectivity. When you’re a part of these conversations from the beginning, you can share concerns that could affect not just your workflow but the quality of overall patient care and hospital operations.
At GE HealthCare, we’ve found that there are some universal concerns that your IT teams voice when they’re involved in onboarding a new system. These include collaboration, interoperability, standardization and cybersecurity.
But the best way to combat an issue is to bring it to light. Let’s talk about these pain points and how you can address them to help build connections with your vendors and care teams.
- Collaboration
In any relationship, strong communication is foundational, so it’s no surprise that a lack of it can negatively impact teams, vendors, and project success.
Your teams specifically need vendors to provide the necessary documentation upfront—including compliance documentation (e.g., GDPR, HIPAA), integration documentation and workflow diagrams—to move forward with the onboarding process.
In many cases, the best way to ensure collaboration takes place is to build it in at the beginning of a process. This means getting the right people into the conversation early in the buying process. Next, everyone involved should share their concerns, the projected timeline, the need and expectations, and establish preferred means of communication.
Collaboration is a two-way street that creates clarity for all parties if everyone is engaged and committed from the beginning. Once the system is purchased, GE HealthCare immediately steps in to facilitate the implementation by assigning a project manager. This way, you have a dedicated team member and support system who is constantly fostering communication and keeping things moving forward.
- Cybersecurity
The threat is real, and the stakes are high. Because of that, you and your IT teams face significant challenges in ensuring vendors maintain stringent cybersecurity standards. With increasing connectivity, medical devices are vulnerable to cyberattacks, potentially compromising patient data and device functionality—making it an essential consideration in implementation.
A way to be proactive in this fight is to demand data protection systems, encryption models, and regular security updates from vendors. Specific to encryption, end-to-end and in-transit encryption is required by most facilities, and Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) algorithms and two-factor authentication are preferred.
These protocols should be clearly defined, not just to meet guidelines, but also to maintain the safety and security of clinicians and patients. At GE HealthCare, we’re well-versed in cybersecurity needs and ensure that software is used and implemented in a way that maintains the safety and privacy of data.
- Interoperability
When considering a solution for interoperability challenges, the end goal is to ensure a reliable data exchange between different medical devices and systems within your network, making data easily accessible for all teams.
This requires software and platforms that ensure compatibility and integration. And with a vendor that can work with you on all the moving parts of an implementation, you can configure all your operations to make sure the data moves as smoothly as possible.
- Standardization
Another critical component of data management is standardization across the hospital system. Time is of the essence for team members across your system, so if data and reports are organized uniformly, efficiency can get a huge boost across your organization.
For example, clinicians are often looking for the same data in reports, so no matter who the technician is who conducts a scan, a standardized system helps everyone work more efficiently.
Verisound™ from GE HealthCare—specifically the ViewPoint™ 6 system—supports documentation accuracy and efficient report creation by minimizing manual entry and dictation time while fully integrating with radiology department workflows and IT systems. So the data looks the same and can be analyzed by your team quickly.
Ultimately, Your IT Voice is Essential
In all of this, the reality is that you have the power to effect change between you and your care teams and your vendors. Like in any healthy relationship, strengthening trust and confidence starts by voicing concerns, needs and goals. When it comes to purchasing and implementing a new system, that’s a perfect time to connect as a team and make sure everyone’s voices are heard, including IT. GE HealthCare specifically is proud to work with both clinicians and IT teams to ensure smooth onboarding, whether it be a fleet of equipment or a full software system installation. When we’re all sharing our concerns and needs, we’re able to focus on the end goal together, delivering excellent patient care.
