Healthcare delivery beyond the hospital’s four walls has been predicted for decades. The COVID-19 pandemic, technological transformation, and a renewed emphasis on tackling rising healthcare costs indicate that this oft-predicted but never quite realized trend may actually become a reality.
A McKinsey report points to the growth of ambulatory surgery centers and virtual care as bright spots in an otherwise bleak growth outlook for healthcare. With these new sites and avenues of care delivery, however, this expanded scope requires EHR systems to manage new workflows that reach beyond traditional healthcare facilities.
That is where EHR, third-party, and enterprise application test automation surfaces as an even more valuable tool. With an automation solution in place, health IT executives and their teams can test the entire workflow, regardless of where the work is performed.
A More Patient-Centered Approach to Care Delivery
Though speaking about healthcare changes in the future, Alexa Kimball, MD, president and CEO of Harvard Medical Faculty Physicians at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, sees changes likely coming even sooner: “Brick-and-mortar buildings aren’t going away anytime soon. What will differ is how care is delivered beyond the traditional four walls. Expect to see a more patient-centered and responsive system organized around what individuals need — when and where they need it.”
In tandem with this shift, she says: “Technology will not only enable doctors to deliver more personalized treatment plans but will also dramatically reshape physician workflows and processes. These digital tools will streamline administrative tasks, integrate voice commands, and provide more conducive work environments.”
Increasingly, health systems see patient engagement and retention as a business strategy, and technology is the real enabler of this new approach to care; it offers increased opportunity to put the patient at the center.
Here are a few examples:
- Patients prescribed wearable technology are monitored from home, with the data shared to the cloud.
- Outpatient facilities or mobile screening/imaging units in the local community employ staff who can operate diagnostic tools under the remote guidance of physicians or other staff.
- Cloud-based sharing of data collected in the field feeds virtual collaboration amongst care teams.
- Appointment reminders, payment plans, and digital intake provide frictionless avenues for patient interaction.
Challenges of Healthcare Delivery in New Care Sites
Health IT departments navigating this emerging reality are challenged to ensure the smooth, secure flow of all this data across new care sites and ensure care coordination and quality. This involves resolving regulatory and security issues and effectively managing patient safety in various care locations. Test automation supports the resolution of these issues.
For example, with manual testing, human error can result in incorrect patient documentation, putting patients at risk of the wrong treatment plan or an inaccurate diagnosis. The importance of validating the clinical and patient workflows can be down through Testing automation which reduces the risk with human errors. SureTest leverages a customized SurePersona® Engine to rapidly emulate each team member’s precise functions for every use case, and our SureMethod® Framework adapts to perfectly fit your workflows so our clients always leverage the most up-to-date protocols – no matter where care is delivered.
Test automation acts as a pivotal component of the data sharing, interoperability, and analytics needed to make alternative sites of care delivery work.
Test Automation Smooths the Path to New Sites of Care
With emulated test automation, the entire workflow of a patient journey can be tested, regardless of where the work is performed. Here is how it works with SureTest:
Automate Any End-User Testing
The SureTest solution automates any end-user testing for EHR and third-party application testing processes and covers integrated, unit, smoke, and regression testing, along with optimization and break/fix maintenance. We also support enterprise solutions – HR, ERP/supply chain, and CRM systems such as Infor, Workday, PeopleSoft, and Salesforce.
And it’s all customized to your workflows. Our skilled developers and test automation engineers build out automation scripts based on your specific operational needs.
Testing Does Not Contain PHI
Given this new, more patient-centered approach to care delivery, it’s important to note that SureTest conducts all Quality Assurance (QA) testing in an environment that does not contain patient health information (PHI). We access your systems the same way a user would with a dedicated test user account to authenticate inside an application.
Delivered via a Managed Service Solution
Whether you are adding a new application or moving through a new EHR release, testing resources are in high demand. SureTest’s managed service solution supports your team with all maintenance and continual development to keep your scripts current.
SureTest automation engineers rigorously monitor test scripts to stay one step ahead of even the slightest change. We take on this work for you on an ongoing basis, helping to optimize your staff, deliver game-changing efficiency, and improve patient care.
Let Go of Manual Processes
With healthcare delivery increasingly moving outside the hospital, it is time to let go of manual processes. Yet trusting test automation to truly begin innovative outcomes and results in as little as 4-6 weeks — and liberating your staff from the tedious, time-consuming process of manually testing — is a leap worth taking.
SureTest and Eggplant (part of Keysight Technologies) have joined forces to help you make the leap to innovation, and deliver money and time savings to your teams..
SureTest’s managed test automation solution is powered by Eggplant, producing a turbocharged testing automation “machine” to drastically improve testing quality, and jump start your automated testing, realizing a shift to automation with benefits in 4-6 weeks from project kick-off.
The SureTest team will also help you set a current state ROI baseline for test automation and move forward with calculating your organization’s correct and real ROI.
Learn more about how SureTest uses Eggplant to forge a powerful alliance that’s revolutionizing test automation.