A new study finds that poor or inefficient technology costs the healthcare industry $8 billion annually. Here are the eight biggest culprits.
Healthcare organizations lose $8 billion annually to inefficient and outdated IT, and few companies have the funds to improve their technology.
Those are the key takeaways from a new survey of more than 900 medical professionals by Black Book Research. This study is the third in Black Book's “What's Hot and What's Not About Healthcare IT Investments” series, and finds that since 2017, there has been a significant increase in bad IT investments, with costs increasing by 17%. Estimated at $1 billion, budget constraints are preventing health leaders from making amends. Those problems.
“Three-quarters of IT leaders surveyed said they have no plans to allocate funding to replace these flawed systems in 2025,” Black Book President Doug Brown said in a press release. “This reflects a broader trend of financial constraints across the industry.”
(Also read: Lessons for healthcare executives: Make sure new technology isn't fake.)
“Given the track record of many healthcare IT vendors failing to meet expectations, it makes sense that CIOs would be wary of replacing underperforming systems if the ROI is uncertain. Without clear evidence that it will result in measurable financial or operational improvements, it will be difficult to justify the expense.”
Research shows that technical limitations are tied to one of five main reasons: Poor user experience (almost half of those surveyed cited this), lack of interoperability (24%), cost (20%), lack of flexibility (6%) and vigilance fatigue (2%) ).
The findings will disappoint healthcare leaders who are looking to their IT platforms, especially EHRs, to support innovations such as AI and virtual care. Inefficient technology platforms not only erode the ROI of new programs, they also increase the stress and frustration that plagues nearly every health system and hospital, leading to burnout and workforce shortages.
A Black Book study lists the eight IT adventures that most challenge healthcare leaders.
EHRs that are overly complex or unintuitive. For healthcare organizations that collect and manage data, EHRs are either scapegoats or saviors, and their promise remains unfulfilled. According to Black Book, more than three-quarters of those surveyed continue to have issues, many with poor navigation and workflow design, leading to “click fatigue.” Additionally, as many smaller health systems and hospitals are being acquired by larger, more established networks, 91% of small practices surveyed transitioned smoothly to a larger system's EHR. The answer is that it has not been done. Bad telemedicine. Virtual care has grown in popularity during the pandemic, but in many cases these platforms were quickly adopted without due diligence. As a result, more than 80% of survey respondents said these telemedicine tools are not synced with their EHRs, creating scary data silos and duplicated information and hindering workflows. Clumsy RCM system. For years, healthcare organizations have sought to automate revenue cycle management operations to improve efficiency, recover lost reimbursements, and reduce manual administrative tasks. Unfortunately, the technology didn't live up to expectations. Approximately 70% of executives surveyed said their company's RCM technology is outdated or unable to integrate new tools such as AI, resulting in longer claim processing times and higher denial rates. . Additionally, just over 60% said poor claims scrubbing and repudiation management capabilities are leading to lost revenue. Uncooperative HIE. Health information exchange offers the potential to connect health systems and enable data sharing. However, 28% of practices say their EHRs do not sync well with their HIEs, and 23% cite a lack of data standardization and integration. Poor integration of CDS tools. Healthcare providers often rely on clinical decision support technology to improve decision making and enhance clinical outcomes. However, research shows that 80% say their CDS tools are not integrated with their EHR, and that first-generation tools often generate excessive or unnecessary alerts, leading to “alarm fatigue.” I am answering. Lack of patient engagement support. Patient engagement technologies, such as portals and messaging platforms, are designed to improve patient-provider relationships. However, 77% of hospital executives surveyed said their portals are not meeting patient needs, resulting in ineffective communication and engagement. Additionally, 88% of those surveyed said smaller, niche products don't have the integration or mobile-friendly features they need. Overhyped AI. AI could address many of the healthcare industry's biggest pain points, but the technology isn't here yet. A whopping 96% of executives surveyed said they face ROI challenges, and 92% said they still can't rely on the accuracy of tools to find actionable results. Meanwhile, approximately 85% said the tools they use to automate diagnosis and treatment planning are not yet ready for complex real-world clinical environments. Interoperability issues. Finally, 31% of executives surveyed said they were dissatisfied with their data interoperability vendor, with slow updates and poor API support being the main complaints. This is despite the federal government's efforts to create a national interoperability grid through TEFCA. Many companies are struggling to adopt the (FHIR) Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources standard, with 8% saying they are stuck with technologies that are not interoperable.
Eric Wicklund is an associate content manager and senior innovation editor at HealthLeaders.
