How to Choose a Connected Health Solution Your Clinicians Will Actually Use

Yet despite this worthy goal, too many healthcare technology implementations fail due to low clinician adoption. There are many reasons this type of disconnect can happen, and there are also many ways to prevent it — the most important of which is selecting connected health technology your clinicians actually want and need. In this article, we ask our own Harmony Robinson, MSN, NI-BC, CHES, and Jennifer More, MN, RN, NPD-BC, two of our Clinical Informatics experts at Baxter,, two of our Clinical Workflow Solutions experts at Baxter, to share their stories of healthcare technology roll-outs gone right (and wrong), their advice to help healthcare leaders drive solid adoption, and their tips for righting the course when needed.

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Robinson: I was once engaged with a health system rolling out a mobile solution. The physicians were excited about the workflow efficiencies they gained, and this led to hospital leadership deciding to roll it out to the nurses as well. The problem was that nurses didn’t have mobile devices they could use. That meant nurses had to send and receive messages from desktop computers — and as we all know, nurses don’t sit in front of computers all day. The new solution was adding extra steps for nursing, resulting in workarounds and low adoption.
The intentions were great — the organization had a solution physicians really liked, so they wanted to extend it to nurses as well. Unfortunately, the nursing workflow hadn’t been taken into account in the planning process, so it just didn’t work for them.

More: I once walked onto a unit to find a box of mobile phones sitting on a desk. Apparently, the IT department had heard from clinical teams that they wanted a mobile communication solution, so they found a good deal and moved forward. Great, right? Well, the phones were heavy — so heavy that the nurses didn’t want to carry them around all day. If end-users had been involved in selecting the connected health technology, the clinicians could have found a device that worked for everyone. Without involving clinicians early on in the decision-making process, even the best intentions aren’t set up for success.
 

Keys to Driving Clinician Adoption of Digital Health Solutions

So how can leaders encourage clinicians to adopt digital health technology? In addition to involving them in the evaluation process, keep their needs in mind: improving patient care, reducing administrative work and supporting a safer environment. More and Robinson also agree that adoption hinges on technology that makes clinicians’ workflows easier, not harder.

More: When it comes down to why clinicians adopt a new piece of technology, it’s typically because it helps them keep their patients safer, or it takes something off their plates — whether it’s something they no longer need to do or something they no longer need to remember.
For example, a locating solution may feel threatening to a nurse who thinks it could be used punitively. But when they see how it helps them automatically complete a rounding task based on their presence in a patient’s room, then they see the value. Or when a new communication solution is rolled out, and suddenly they don’t have to remember the name of the charge nurse on duty right now because they can call by role; that takes something they used to have to remember off their plates. Those are both ways connected health solutions can make nurses’ lives easier by removing tasks or automating workflows — and those are strong paths to adoption.

Robinson: I agree; the goal of implementing these solutions is to make it easier for teams to care for patients. For example, there are all types of alerts and alarms we can send right to the palms of users’ hands — but if they aren’t carefully tailored for that user, they may add more burden than value. We need to ask the right questions and get them the information they need at the right time to support them in improving care and make their lives easier.

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Featured Contributors

Harmony Robinson, MSN, NI-BC, CHES, Senior Manager, Clinical Informatics | Baxter

Harmony began her career in public health, collaborating with nonprofit community organizations to address systemic health disparities and drive equity in care. She later transitioned into nursing, gaining critical frontline experience in... Read Full Bio

Jennifer More, MN, RN, NPD-BC, Senior Manager, Clinical Informatics | Baxter

Prior to joining Hillrom/Baxter, Jen was Director of Nursing Practice for an IDN in the Pacific Northwest, focused on leading operational nursing strategies, collaborating with Informatics and Clinical Education to deliver excellent patient care. With over 23 years in nursing... Read Full Bio

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