Implementation Risk Moves Into Focus

The purchase risk with a home health care solution might go unnoticed if implementation is viewed solely as the deployment of an application. This is risky because the implementation of a home health solution involves training staff in a way that allows them to integrate the new technology into their workflows. It takes into account training time, integration into daily workflow, device availability and support of managers.

This risk is important because home health care is inherently characterized by very small margins of attention. Field employees travel between patients' homes, take care of ever-changing care notes, and make decisions independently. The introduction of a new system, which brings new processes, may negatively affect the speed of execution of operations.

Another aspect of the issue under discussion is related to data integrity. Alerts, visit notes, and caregiver messages become useful if they are recorded and monitored by the appropriate parties. Poor implementation brings to light the false notion of increased visibility. Executives may feel like having better control over the situation; however, the frontline teams continue working in the same way, relying on phone calls, written-down notes, and manual follow-up.

Another area of the problem relates to training. There is often an extensive list of different specialists involved in home health care teams, including nurses, aides, therapists, and office coordinators. All of them work on the same platform but have different needs. A poorly done implementation will result in fragmented knowledge about the system's operation. In this way, the efficiency of usage is significantly reduced and measuring the benefits of the system becomes impossible.

Therefore, the vendors in this space will need to develop their approach in order to provide additional assistance beyond installation. Providers will expect the vendor's help with mapping workflows, onboarding of employees, defining escalation policies and report writing practices. The product is digital, but the performance of the system relies on human routines.

In this regard, the procurement process becomes more complicated. First of all, buyers will need to look closer at how the solution fits in the field workflow and not just at its feature set. At the same time, one needs to consider possible problems with alert escalation, documentation and response of the caregiver. These are the common challenges in home care, not rare outliers.

The solutions for home health care are going to be crucial in the future because of the growing prevalence of this type of service. The key challenge is whether implementation practices could catch up with such an evolution. A good system should streamline care coordination and not transform employees into data clerks. That difference is going to matter.