Adoption of New Technology System Health Records
If users don’t adapt to and adopt the new technology, it is wasted money, effort, and time. Your ROI tanks. User adoption is not just achieved by training users on how to use the new technology, it is achieved by gaining buy-in and commitment. By implementing new technology you are disrupting the daily routine of users. This causes frustration and resistance. If this is not addressed it leads to delays, slows customer response time, and creates employee and customer satisfaction issues. NURS 6051 wk 6: Adoption of New Technology Systemsc Health Records
You’re in luck, though! Below are 7 tips for a successful technology adoption, that I have compiled after working too-many-to-count technology projects:
1. Align technology and strategy
Specific technology is often implemented because of the vendor and name recognition (i.e. SAP, Epic, Oracle), and not because it is necessarily the best solution to meet business needs, or achieve strategic goals. When choosing which technology to implement for your business, don’t just weigh the name of the vendor and the price. Take a look at your strategy. Think about how new technology will help you achieve your strategic goals.
The purpose of introducing new technology to a business is to improve performance. Start with the goals you want to achieve, and then plan backwards, finding a technology that best supports improved performance. People are more likely to adopt new technology if they can see how it helps them to achieve their goals and objectives. NURS 6051 wk 6: Adoption of New Technology Systemsc Health Records
2. Communicate for buy-in and engagement
Achieving user adoption for new technology requires communicating with stakeholders early and often. Before you can communicate with stakeholders you need to have all your stakeholder groups identified. The way each currently performs their work, processes, should be documented. The impacts the new technology will have on them needs to be identified and communicated. Ways in which your organization will mitigate any negative impacts for stakeholders also needs to be communicated. NURS 6051 Essay Assignments
You shouldn’t just be communicating cutover and go-live dates. Engagement requires communicating “with” and not “at” your stakeholders. Communicating for engagement requires audience segmentation. Not all stakeholders will need to hear the same message at the same time in the same way.
Informing stakeholders you are deploying new technology because “we need it” or because “leadership says so” or even because “it will help us compete” are not specific enough details to drive engagement – and engagement increases adoption.
- Perform a current systems analysis
Technology upgrades or introducing new technologies carries a huge compatibility risk – what if the new systems turn out not to be compatible with those you already have or integration requires more build time than was anticipated. To prevent system integration issues, make sure you review all your current technology systems thoroughly before you consider deploying something new. Don’t just conduct detailed requirements gathering for the new technology, make sure the functionality of your current systems can support and integrate effectively with your new technology. Performing this work upfront will prevent system redundancies, reduce costly build times, and help the budget from ballooning. NURS 6051 wk 6: Adoption of New Technology Systemsc Health Records
4. Develop training approach early
One of the biggest risks to user adoption is lack of sufficient and customized training. Many vendors offer training options as part of your technology purchase, however, most of this training is standardized off the shelf and not specific to your business processes or culture. Training should not just be screenshots and PowerPoint. People need to see and play in the system, prior to go-live, in the context of their specific work processes. NURS 6051 Essay Assignment
To increase adoption, make sure that training is specific to each stakeholder group and the way they perform their work. One quick way to increase resistance and decrease adoption is to make stakeholders feel they’ve wasted their time with training, and have them end up even more confused because they don’t see the connection to their work.
Additionally, not everyone will learn and adapt to new technology in the same way. Consider offering multiple training methods – electronic, classroom, smaller hands-on training labs – various options ensure users feel most prepared. NURS 6051 wk 6: Adoption of New Technology Systemsc Health Records
5. Integrate technology deployment with change management
Many organizations are so focused on deployment and conversion, schedules and criteria, that they fail to deploy and integrate a change management process for helping stakeholders adapt and adopt to technology. This is often one of the biggest reasons for rocky deployments, low adoption, and project failure. Technology only achieves desired goals if the people adopt it, if they don’t, technology is just wasted money.
To maximize adoption and minimize resistance, your deployment plan and team must be integrated with the change management plan and team. If you don’t have a change management plan and resources in place then you may want to get on that pronto. NURS 6051 wk 6: Adoption of New Technology Systemsc Health Records