The healthcare industry is evolving rapidly to create room for digital solutions. Long-term care is no different, and when you notice the benefits of implementing digital transformation, it’s easy to see why. In fact, according to one Forbes article, adapting to digital solutions is key for care facilities to improve the quality of life and care for their residents and employees alike. Digital transformation can address specific and relevant issues affecting the industry, such as the staffing crisis that has arisen due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
While it’s important to prioritize these transformative initiatives, it can be challenging to manage so much change at once and support your staff throughout the transition. This is where a service desk is absolutely essential to your processes. Even more important than having a service desk to rely on is having one that prioritizes continuous improvement and provides maximum support to your staff.
So, what can you do to make sure you’re maximizing the value of your facility’s service desk? Zach Brand, director of connected solutions at Crossfuze, has three tips to get the most out of your service desk so that you can empower your end users and provide better care to your patients.
Involve Your Service Desk in Organizational Change
In order to keep up with expectations from residents and staff for more tech-dependent services and amenities, long-term care facilities must be able to rely on IT support to drive efficient organizational change. For example, according to the CDC, the percentage of residential care facilities that use electronic medical records (EMR) has been steadily increasing since 2012, with 26 percent of communities using them in 2016. This widespread use of EMR has made it more essential than ever to support digital transformation to remain competitive in the ever-evolving industry.
On top of the expectation to transition to these new systems while ensuring privacy, compliance, and efficiency, you also need to support staff through this period of increased complexity. “The perception of end users is what ultimately determines the success or failure of large IT change initiatives,” says Brand. “Of course, technology needs to be functional, but at the end of the day, it all comes down to your ability to communicate its use and ensure an excellent end user experience.”
This is where a high-powered service desk can help. With 24/7, on-demand assistance available to facility staff, a service desk is not only the first line of support in the case of any problems with new technologies—EMR or otherwise—but it can also help in times of transition. “Lean on your service desk during these stages to give your end users the training and enablement they need to get the most out of these new tools,” says Brand. “As they efficiently adapt to these changes, you can focus your attention on providing great care to your residents.”
Improve the End-User Experience with Tailored Customer Support
So, why does providing an excellent experience for your end users matter? According to Brand, “when your end users—such as nurses, admission directors, and administrators—are all well-equipped to use relevant technology efficiently and happily, they will be more likely to provide comprehensive and great care to the residents at your facility.” As a result, when your residents have a great experience, they’ll want to talk about it, allowing you to reach even more residents through their praise.
On the other hand, when your staff has a negative experience—whether it’s due to slow loading speeds, long waiting times, password problems, loss of network connection, or a frozen screen—that impacts patient care. Therefore, to ensure the highest quality of care possible, you need to empower your staff with great IT support that prioritizes customer service.
With the stressors that come along with working at a long-term care facility, it’s essential to find and operate an IT service team that will be cognizant of these stresses to provide relevant assistance. By providing this high-quality care, they can further improve the end-user experience to relieve some of this stress and ensure an effortless experience for nurses, administrators, and the rest of your staff.
Leverage Relevant Data to Drive Continuous Improvement
Beyond providing assistance for daily technology issues, a service desk can also help you leverage relevant data to address the most pressing issues and drive continuous improvement in its processes. For example, a service desk that uses ServiceNow can access and view important data—as well as send out surveys to collect qualitative data—all through one platform. With easy access to this information, your service desk can take it and identify ways to grow and solve the most pressing issues.
At Crossfuze, Brand uses an analytics tool to organize and communicate surveys across an organization. “Then, you can slice this data according to location, department, job role, or time period,” he says. “Once you have an idea of which departments or technology regularly report the same incident, you can focus on these areas.” For example, if your EMR platform regularly has the worst survey results and drives the most calls to the service desk, this can give you an indication of what you need to change to provide a better experience for your staff.
Similarly, accurately identifying which trouble areas are most problematic and important to address can help you stay within your budget and spend more time doing what you do best: caring for the patients in your facility.
If you maximize the power of your service desk, you can do more than just solve minor technical problems: You can facilitate better organizational change, improve the end-user experience, drive continuous improvement, and ultimately provide the incredible care that your residents deserve. To learn more about how Crossfuze can provide the highest value service desk at your facility, reach out to us at LetsTalk@crossfuze.com.
