Healthcare IT Consultant: Scope of Work
IT consultants are here to help an organization grow, and I want to set the expectations for how they do it with IT consulting.
The scope of healthcare IT consulting includes understanding the present state and introducing competent health tech solutions ranging from IT infrastructure to processes to hospital software.
One of the challenges within our scope is to introduce changes to the organization’s culture. Our work also includes dealing with various roles both inside and outside the facility. For instance:
1. Tap IT Vendors for Best Solutions
The consultant may need to tap IT vendors that provide solutions to a healthcare facility. These vendors may specialize in hospital systems, clinic systems, electronic health records, hardware, or network infrastructure.
2. Work with Third-party consultants
We may recommend tapping the expertise of other consultants related to or unrelated to the field of technology or healthcare such as accounting, legal, or engineering to ensure a better workflow.
It’s good to know that there are different forms of IT consultants. Some of them are
- Technical Consultant – focuses more on technical solutions such as software. This consultant is primarily trained under the computer science discipline. What excites him is to improve the codes to make the information flow faster and better.
- Business consultant – this consultant focuses on how technology can improve business and efficiency. His background is most likely with management and information systems.
- Healthcare consultant – this type has a profound experience in both healthcare and IT aspects of things. For instance, he can make process flow better and has a network of providers to achieve such goals.
3. Engage with Healthcare workers
Armed with the knowledge of healthcare processes and technology, a healthcare IT consultant engages with key roles in an organization to capture what technology fits best for their work process.
To some extent, we may need to speak with them individually. We speak in the language they understand. Our premise is always, “how can technology improve your role.”
Here are ideal questions and discussions to key healthcare roles:
- Accountants – How can technology help capture and transmit critical data from billing and cashier up to the admin so they can make informed decisions?
- HR – What can capture the rapidly moving HR data such as availability, attendance, leaves, doctor’s fees, staff salary, benefits, among others? How can technology efficiently manage this big data so that operations run smoother? How can the organization better serve the hospital staff so they can better serve the patients?
- IT officers – how can in-house IT sustain tech improvements that will be introduced? How to design the training so this can be effectively implemented? How to secure wireless access spots for patients?
- Nurses – what are the issues in charting, electronic health records, hospital systems, and how can technology and connectivity help?
- Doctors – how can wireless communication and technology improve patient care management?
- Billing – how can billing delays and processes be solved by software or technology?
These elements are among the top priorities of a healthcare IT consultant’s scope of work.
Upon agreement with the client, our overall goal revolves around making costs lower for the facility, coordinating with the admin for high-level directions, and creating tech solutions that will move the organization from its present state to its desired future state.
At Troinet, we help healthcare organizations achieve their goals with technology. Feel free to contact us or book a complimentary consultation.
