Coralina Charles
Sep 6 2022
Reading Time: 3 minutes
Home-based care organizations have enough on their plate with changing regulations, staffing shortages, and an aging population.
When they choose new technology to help combat these challenges, they need a vendor that understands what it takes to successfully implement new digital tools, foster employee buy-in, and help ensure they have a long-term solution that will lead them to their goals.
Without this knowledge of implementation, organizations can find themselves unable to take full advantage of their investment—and ultimately unable to reach their goals. Here are six common barriers to the implementation process, and how they can be overcome:
1. Not having a project manager
Organizations need at least one dedicated person to lead the implementation from their department and to help ensure everyone has what they need to communicate efficiently and successfully adopt the new technology.
Overcome this challenge: Be sure to assign at least one person, or one per department, as a project manager to lead a team and take ownership to make decisions.
2. Lack of super users
Even if your project manager is a super user—which we highly suggest—you need both. While PMs are managing the logistics of the transition, super users are on hand to train everyone and lead others toward adoption.
Overcome this challenge: Identify early users who quickly grasp the new technology, invest the time to train them, and allow those super users to guide others.
3. Absence of a change management plan
If there is no plan before change begins, employees are likely to resist adoption and there will be no accountability for learning the new technology.
Overcome this challenge: Draw a hard line for staff to transition to new technology and make it clear that the old digital tools (or paper methods) will no longer be used after a certain time.
4. No rollout plan
Your organization is ready for the coming changes, but you have no rollout plan. This means there is no plan for training, communication, the implementation of new processes, policy updates, or even a go live date—leaving your staff questioning the new technology before it even gets fully adopted.
Overcome this challenge: Make a set rollout plan and communicate it to your entire organization, making sure they understand how and when they will be trained, processes will be changing, and the new digital tools will officially go live.
5. Failure to communicate goals
When staff members don’t have a solid understanding of why technology was chosen and what they’re expected to do with it, it’s likely that they will go back to using dated technologies that fail to integrate with new digital tools.
Overcome this challenge: Leadership needs to be vocal about validating their investment into the technology, why they chose it, and the goals they intend to reach.
6. Not enough IT resources
The average employee will not fully understand what it takes to integrate technologies and troubleshoot issues, leaving staff with average knowledge of technology to manage difficult questions and problems.
Overcome this challenge: Have a dedicated, tech-focused staff to handle the complex management of your new digital tools.
CitusHealth understands customer needs when it comes to implementing new technologies, no matter how large or small the organization. Schedule a demo to see for yourself how we can help home-based care providers prepare for digital transformations, foster employee adoption, and move toward their goals.
