Operational efficiency is essential — and more urgent — than ever as healthcare systems struggle to get and stay in the black. But how? Seek a strategic approach that helps to determine what will be most impactful for your organization.
The SureTest team has had the privilege of walking alongside and partnering with many top health organizations, and we’ve learned a thing or two about operational efficiency along the way.
We’ve outlined four areas to focus on to help you create your strategy to achieve operational efficiency.
How To Choose Projects
Target High-Impact Projects
Automate Manual Processes
Prioritize Value-Added Solutions
Operational efficiency is realized in more ways than one. Take a multi-faceted approach when selecting projects.
Taking a time-consuming manual process and automating it has several positive effects on efficiency. It streamlines, removes bottlenecks and delays, and reduces or eliminates the time and energy it takes staff.
By focusing on projects that optimize processes and improve productivity in different ways, you can grow operational efficiency and help your staff operate at their best.
Another consideration is focusing on projects essential to your organization’s success. For example, your EHR, third-party, and enterprise application testing processes are the backbone of healthcare delivery and need continuous testing to ensure proper functioning.
Manual testing is time and resource-consuming, which makes it challenging to test as frequently as needed and invites risks that may compromise patient safety. It’s counterproductive to operational efficiency, causing negative outcomes that can hinder your organization.
A project such as test automation allows faster, more efficient testing and enables your organization to test more thoroughly.
With healthcare organizations pressed to do more with less, selecting projects that offer added value helps you stretch your resources further.
In the case of test automation, you can achieve operational efficiency in testing your EHR, third-party, and enterprise application testing processes while dramatically improving testing quality.
Manual testing is prone to human error, and the quality of work drops the longer your staff works on it. But with test automation, testing integrity is not contingent on whether or not someone makes a mistake. It’s consistent and reliable.
How To Sell to Leadership
Demonstrate ROI to Leadership
Point to the Proof of Efficiency
Stay Focused on the Big Picture
An organization’s leadership needs to know when any initiative will result in significant positive ROI. A project or solution with a proven ROI is more likely to get approval.
In determining the ROI impact for your organization, consider the ROI you can expect and how quickly you can achieve it. If you transition from manual to automated testing, can you expect to see ROI delivered in a relatively short time frame? How does the solution continue to pay dividends over the long term?
Any organization’s leadership will also want to see efficiency in action. Look at the evidence of any solution or project being considered. Are there any case studies, research, testimonials, or industry-backed credentialing that confirm how it will help your organization realize operational efficiency?
There are a lot of test automation solutions out there claiming to boost efficiency, but you also need to consider it in the context of what your organization does. A solution exclusively focused on healthcare is more likely to fit your organization’s needs and objectives.
Any project under consideration needs to encompass the organization’s broader goals. It’s important to weigh how the project will help carry out those goals. By selecting more long-term strategic solutions, like test automation, rather than short-term “fast fixes,” your organization stays focused on its strategic objectives.
These types of projects are far more likely to gain the backing of a leadership team because they help drive and further your organizational mission.
How To Measure ROI
The Non-Negotiable
Look at How It Impacts Your Staff
Raise the Bar and Keep an Eye on the Horizon
Today’s digital health solutions must prove in no uncertain terms how they will create efficiency and deliver ROI. According to Forbes, the current economic uncertainty is pressuring digital health companies to prove real financial ROI for both the short and long term.
At the end of the day, there is either a positive ROI from a project or there isn’t. It’s important to share expectations for ROI with your team. What can you realistically accomplish? What time frame are you aiming to realize ROI within?
Return on an investment in a project or solution can also be measured in other ways. How it affects a team is critical. If it helps deliver their best work, it’s worth reviewing. Manual processes are draining, and your staff pays a “mental energy tax” on these tasks. When bogged down with attention-demanding, error-prone processes, employees can’t function at optimal levels.
When this happens, quality can be compromised, negatively impacting morale and leading to a disengaged workforce. Healthcare organizations can’t afford to let this happen, especially when workers are leaving the industry in droves.
With healthcare organizations needing to stretch resources further, it’s time to elevate expectations. Look for solutions that can deliver a higher-than-expected ROI and give your team the freedom to pursue other strategic projects with potential ROI.
Test automation ensures that your systems are continually tested — which is essential for any healthcare organization — while freeing up time and resources that can be invested in future-focused initiatives.
How SureTest Does It All
Measuring ROI is critical for digital health solutions. Here’s how SureTest can help:
Measurable Efficiency Gains
Reduced Testing Time
Ensure Dramatically Improved Quality and Continuous Testing
Reduce Staff Burnout and Boost Morale
Realize Jaw-Dropping Rapid ROI
SureTest’s Test Automation Solution eliminates up to 80% or more of manual testing activities, helping to maximize operational efficiency. This saves operational spending while simultaneously minimizing human error.
Our Intelligent Test Automation Solution dramatically reduces the length of testing cycles and speeds go-lives and upgrades. Because our solution is automated, it doesn’t rely on time or labor-intensive manual processes and instead is a quick, light lift for your team.
With SureTest, a healthcare system can test more thoroughly and more often. Our managed service includes continuous testing, helping improve patient safety while minimizing the risk of clunky workarounds and insufficient testing.
SureTest helps to decrease burnout and improve retention drastically. With up to 80% or more of manual testing activities no longer on their plate, the staff is now free to focus their time and energy on other critical functions.
Recent client studies confirm that SureTest delivers a positive ROI in Year 1 with a 3-year positive ROI of up to 200%+. Defer headcount to offset the cost of the solution — and realize ROI quickly.
Our Test Automation Solution delivers immediate, impactful ROI. You’ll have leverageable automation in the first 4-6 weeks, with the full scope of automation within 6-9 months.
Take Operational Efficiency to the Next Level
SureTest’s test automation solutions are designed to take operational efficiency in healthcare to the next level. Our solutions deliver significant ROI, improve quality, and empower staff, all while ensuring the highest standards of patient care.
Contact our team today to discuss your specific needs and how SureTest can help you achieve operational excellence.