Despite the fact that c-level support for remote monitoring is larger than ever, many healthcare leaders struggle to effectively deploy and scale remote monitoring programs across an organization, according to participants in a roundtable on remote patient monitoring (RPM) at the 2018 Connected Health Conference. While pilots for such programs can be common, the ability to execute on full-scale remote monitoring is limited by a lack of supporting clinical systems and workflows. In addition, many programs would require reallocating resources and infrastructure changes, which can be challenging for hospitals and health systems.
Participants in the roundtable – which included leaders from major payer and provider organizations, technology companies, government agencies, and patients – agree that change management is one of the biggest barriers to successfully deploying and implementing a remote monitoring program.
Read More: Five Key Steps to Operationally Deploying Remote Monitoring > > >
“The biggest challenges in using patient-generated health data to improve care are in the change management required for adoption. Challenges lie in the process for adopting the new technology in a given institution, not just with the technology itself,” said Martin Entwistle, president and CEO of Ares Health Systems.
Stakeholders involved in the programs – including clinicians, patients, department heads and the c-suite – must define expectations and responsibilities upfront to understand how a program will function effectively. And, organizations should be prepared to evaluate changes in costs and savings, levels of (patient and clinician) engagement and satisfaction, and physician workload to understand the impact of programs.
Roundtable participants noted that this change management is key for scaling programs from the pilot phase or from an individual program to adoption across an organization. Furthermore, regular, continuous evaluation is important in order to learn from mistakes and iterate efficiently.
To learn more about the importance of change management in deploying remote monitoring programs, and other key steps identified by healthcare leaders for successful RPM adoption, read the latest white paper.