Tight budgets for IT development and the subsequent buy-in for new budget requests always pose a challenge in the healthcare space. But as detailed in this comprehensive look at 2023 healthcare finance trends from CommerceHealthcare, those dynamics will continue for the near future.
A chief concern is staff recruitment and retention, which naturally bumps up against pressures for tight cost controls. Several healthcare experts recommend a four-day workweek as a potential (and somewhat controversial) solution. “Some may view a change in work-hour expectations as an evolutionary idea, others will see it as revolutionary,” says Jonathan Baird of Rocky Mountain University of Health Professions.
We may not be able to successfully argue for a 4-day workweek, but we do know that your healthcare organization can realize significant cost and time savings – and address staff recruitment and retention issues – with test automation. Still, there’s likely to be some pushback within your organization before adopting this technology.
To better understand the value of test automation, here are some of the common objections we’ve uncovered when health IT departments begin exploring the possibility.
Budget and Cost Concerns Lead the Way
The elephant in the room for preventing test automation adoption is simple dollars and cents. You likely have heard a frequent refrain of “We just don’t have money in the budget” or “our budget cycle just ended.”
SureTest’s test automation solution and management drives operating cost reduction in year 1. Many customers experience a positive ROI of 100%+ over the life of the contract. The current rise in labor cost and resource shortages make justifying an investment in SureTest feasible.
Departmental Capacity Issues: Not Enough Testing Hours to Realize ROI
Interestingly, we hear both sides of the department capacity issue. On one hand, many prospects believe they do not devote enough hours to testing to realize the ROI of test automation services. To our ears, this reminds us of a bit of Mark Twain’s celebrated “I didn’t have time to write you a short letter, so I wrote you a long one.”
We know hospitals that run Epic or Cerner spend anywhere from 18,000 to 30,000 hours on testing and test-related activities to maintain their EHR, third-party, and enterprise applications. Test below these averages and you may take on unnecessary risk during a major release upgrade and other testing events, that in turn can impact patient care and revenue cycle.
SureTest’s managed test automation solution lowers these risks substantially, allowing organizations to increase test coverage, test frequency, and test accuracy, as well as mitigate risk for negative process audit results due to the lack of sufficient testing.
The Other Side of the Capacity Coin: Too Much Going On
With patient care mission critical, it is no wonder health IT departments are swamped with multiple projects aimed at improving patient care and outcomes. To paraphrase Shakespeare, that sounds like an organization that “doth protest too much, methinks.” No one is too busy to become more productive.
SureTest’s test automation solution is designed to relieve your staff of the burden of expensive, and often inadequate, manual EHR testing. Our solution requires minimal client staff engagement – less than 60 hours total – during a 6–9-month SureTest implementation. Post-implementation, your staff can have 15,000-25,000 hours of manual testing time back per year – making the upfront time investment well worth the effort.
A solid test automation framework becomes even more essential when a new hospital joins your healthcare system, introducing a sudden and significant new demand on limited resources. We leverage the testing you are doing with your newly acquired facilities and complete the required workflow capture in parallel.
It’s Not Broken, So Why Fix It? The Downside of Sticking with Manual Testing
Many organizations are pleased with their current manual testing program and do not see a need to change. We might gently counter that even the most thorough manual testing program can benefit from test automation.
SureTest automates your current script library, giving your analysts, clinicians, and trainers thousands of productive hours back so they can focus on other strategic projects. When you compare the cost of our test automation solution to the labor cost of manual testing, you find that it’s a fraction of the cost.
Get Started with SureTest
These are the most common objections we have encountered, but we know every healthcare organization has its specific concerns.
Reach out to us with your questions today. Our team welcomes your questions and would love to chat with you about test automation and management. Not ready to engage quite yet? Check out our comprehensive list of FAQs here to learn more.