A New Day for Healthcare: Questions to Ask When Preparing for cloud transformation

Is your healthcare organization cloud-ready? Here’s what it takes to get your modernization effort off to a good start.

The cloud versus on-premise debate is largely over with healthcare organizations rapidly embracing the move to cloud. Healthcare organizations widely acknowledge that a modern, agile operating system for finance, HR, and supply chain is necessary in order to compete in the market. The benefits of efficiency, agility, and scalability that cloud-enablement provides have become clear. Nonetheless, cloud-acceptance is not the same as cloud-readiness.

Moving to the cloud involves significant transformation. Just as you wouldn’t run a marathon without training in advance, you shouldn’t move to the cloud without proper preparation. This includes thinking through the costs and benefits, considering the impacts on your service delivery model, and contemplating the future of work—all before you select a vendor and secure the license. ?Here are a few questions to consider as you plan your journey:

·??????Have you defined the case for change? Organizations often rush to implement cloud-based systems without articulating what they want to accomplish and why they’re moving to the cloud in the first place. Building a business case that defines the intended impacts upon the healthcare system and the expected value delivered is the first step in getting everyone moving in the same direction. For instance, some may want to achieve a more collaborative way of working, some may be seeking to enhance customer and employee experiences, and some may be laser-focused on efficiency. Some will want to do all of the above. Regardless, virtually every organization will need to define how they measure success. Some advisors, like Deloitte, conduct visioning discussions to help their clients to develop a clear picture of the desired end state, establish goals and metrics, and understand the road that lies ahead. ?

·??????Have you established appropriate program and change management rigor and discipline? Cloud-enabled transformations require program leaders to make dozens of decisions often within the same day. That’s why it’s critical to establish guiding principles, or “guard rails,” for engaging users and informing design decisions right from the start. It’s also important to make sure you have adequate resources and a change-management plan in place from the outset. Some common pitfalls include: not developing a detailed project plan to guide the work, not planning far enough ahead for integrations, underestimating the health system’s workforce management and scheduling requirements, and not engaging business leaders or the workforce early enough to build understanding, alignment, and buy-in. These pitfalls all have a common denominator: lack of effective project and change management rigor. At a minimum, the project structure should comprise competent advisors, experienced project managers with demonstrated implementation experience, effective change-management tools and methodologies, and detailed milestones for tracking progress. ?

·??????Do you have the appropriate level of data integrity? “Garbage in, garbage out,” still holds true. Data is the foundation of everything we do. Even little things like titling, spacing and numbering can make a big difference in an organization’s cloud readiness. From posting a transaction through creating a report, data needs special attention before you can transform. Clean and consistent data will make your journey smoother, so we recommend this data cleanup as an important first step. Data accuracy and consistency largely controls how fast your cloud-transformation can progress.?

·??????Have you aligned processes across groups? Many healthcare organizations have grown through acquisitions, so it is not uncommon to operate with multiple pay policies, benefits policies, and compensation programs. Organizations may also have different procurement policies, financial close processes, and legal-entity structures. Cloud-based systems present enormous opportunities for standardizing and optimizing almost every aspect of operations, but in order to reap the benefits, organizations need to do the work upfront. Streamlining processes, policies, and programs prior to the implementation will simplify system design and configuration. The more complexity that is eliminated from the very beginning, the more efficiency the organization can achieve.?

·??????Have you defined your modernization goals? Moving to the cloud will change the way your clinicians and administrators work within a financial, human resources and supply chain context, as well as the way in which external stakeholders interact with the organization. Part of being “cloud-ready” is envisioning what you want these processes, transactions, and stakeholder interactions to look like in the future. Another part involves determining the scope of the modernization effort. For instance, an organization may decide to focus solely on streamlining and automating the processes enabled by a particular application. Or, it may choose to pursue broader transformation opportunities, such as redesigning processes, policies, and models both within and beyond the application. Leading cloud-based systems such as Workday give healthcare systems the flexibility to transform at whatever pace matches your organization’s goals and to gain value throughout the journey.?

Ready or not, healthcare organizations increasingly need to embrace cloud-enabled transformation. Like most strategic investments, those who plan ahead are more likely to accomplish what they set out to do, such as improving efficiency, modernizing the customer experience, and freeing up resources to enable a greater focus on patient care. Many embarking on their cloud-journeys can benefit from the knowledge and experience of those who have gone before them. For instance, the Deloitte methodology for evaluating cloud-readiness has helped some of the country’s largest health systems prepare for successful transformations. By enlisting executive sponsorship and management support up front, resolving data inconsistencies and eliminating disparate data sources, aligning policies and processes, and defining what your future state looks like, your healthcare organization can ensure a successful move to the cloud. ?