In a recent survey of healthcare executives conducted by West Monroe, in collaboration with Healthcare Dive, nearly all respondents reported that their organizations had already implemented a digital transformation strategy or were planning to build one within the next year, but definitions of “digital strategy” varied enormously among the survey participants. Without a clear consensus on what becoming digital means – or why it matters – it’s challenging to draw an accurate roadmap that will enable an organization to successfully navigate the necessary changes.
The survey also revealed ongoing struggles to gather and act upon patient and clinician feedback, to implement effective change management and democratize innovation.
“Moving to a digital operating model requires making digital a defining characteristic of your business,” said Hugh Ma, Partner in Healthcare & Life Sciences at West Monroe. “Becoming digital will affect everything from how your patient portal is set up to how you manage recruitment and staffing. To make this transition successful, organizations need to build foundational capabilities first. You have to get everyone on the same page so that you can create the baseline organizational, operational and technological competencies that will support better experiences for patients and providers alike, increase revenues, lower costs and improve outcomes – all in measurable ways.”
The survey revealed a critical lack of alignment among healthcare stakeholders around what “digital” really means in healthcare and why it matters. Although 89% of respondents said that “becoming digital” requires a combination of technical and cultural change, when participants were asked to elaborate on which specific changes were most in keeping with their definition of a digital operating model, they overwhelmingly chose technological ones, such as “leveraging data and analytics to drive better outcomes in clinical operations” (selected by 57%) or “creating new digital products and services” (selected by 50%).
The findings also showed that healthcare organizations struggle to realize the cultural change that is necessary for digital initiatives. When asked why digital initiatives failed to meet expectations, 55% of survey participants said it was due to increased administrative burden, which is often a symptom of poor change management. A misaligned value proposition was cited by 43% of respondents, while 33% mentioned a lack of organizational commitment.
Another common stumbling block was measuring progress and value within digital initiatives. Respondents focused primarily on externally assigned care quality outcomes such as HEDIS measures or STAR ratings (these were cited by 66%) or outcome metrics like mortality rates, hospital-acquired infection rates or readmission rates (cited by 55%). Only 9% of respondents said that they considered the organization’s revenues to be a meaningful indicator of their digital strategy’s effectiveness.
“Our view is that becoming digital is actually much more of a cultural transformation than a technological one,” said Ma. “Trying to avoid this truth will simply perpetuate existing problems and throw up barriers to value realization for all involved. This doesn’t mean that stakeholders need to build an entirely new culture, but it does mean adopting agile processes that leverage data and stakeholder feedback – including patients, clinicians and employees – to do things differently.”
The survey uncovered changing stakeholder perceptions, with growing numbers becoming aware that leveraging evidence-based design within healthcare facilities has the potential to improve comfort, staff productivity, and physical and emotional well-being.
More detailed findings are available in the survey report entitled “Becoming Digital: How Healthcare Executives Are Approaching Strategy, Operations and Goals – And Where They Need Help.”
Survey Methodology
The survey, fielded online, polled 150 healthcare executives in the United States. Conducted in Q3 of 2022, the survey used an assortment of multiple-choice, Likert-scale and matrix questions to understand participants’ attitudes towards evidence-based design, as well as their organizations’ progress and priorities within its adoption. Most respondents (95%) work for hospitals and private practices, though outpatient clinics, ambulatory care and sub- or post-acute care facility employees were also represented. Most survey participants’ roles are Chief, SVP or VP of Digital, Strategy, Innovation or Marketing. Executives in Care Coordination, Consumer Engagement, Patient Experience, Patient Access and other administrative areas were also included. Their organizations ranged in size from very small to very large, with a median size of approximately 500 employees.
West Monroe is a digital services firm that was born in technology but built for business – partnering with companies in transformative industries to deliver quantifiable financial value. We believe that digital is a mindset – not a project, a team or a destination – and it’s something companies become, not something they do.
That’s why we work in diverse, multidisciplinary teams that blend management consulting, digital design and product engineering to move companies from traditional ways of working to digital operating models – and create experiences that transcend the digital and physical worlds.