Creating and Executing an Actionable Digital Transformation Strategy in Healthcare
If the walls of today’s healthcare executive meetings could talk, they’d speak of Digital Transformation. More than ever before, healthcare companies are investing in establishing and executing strategies to transform their organizations toward a “digitally enabled,” “digital first,” or “digital only” model. Across the industry, health systems are emerging from COVID-19 with new-found momentum in the digital space. The shift to “digital first” or “digital only” has accelerated the case for change — along with the urgent need to close revenue gaps caused by the pandemic.
While many healthcare organizations are ready to embrace Digital Transformation, many simultaneously struggle to define a strategy that is oriented equally towards satisfying the needs of the customer and the business while accounting for technical feasibility. In fact, executive leaders cite Digital Transformation as the single greatest risk factor to their future business success.¹ How can organizations break down large, complex topics like Digital Transformation into an actionable roadmap that is as strategic and customer-focused as it is implementation-ready?
At Slalom, we advise healthcare clients to focus on five key pillars to solve for this challenge:
1. Lead with Experience
More than 80% of organizations today compete mainly based on customer experience.² Within healthcare, a focus on customer experience has the potential to not only improve an organization’s competitive position, but improve the patient experience, increase business value, and decrease costs. Healthcare executives are embracing this knowledge. Almost 60% of healthcare industry executives indicate that improving customer experience is a top business priority for their organizations — an even higher priority than increasing efficiency or increasing revenue.³
The creation of successful digital transformation strategies begins with a focus on customer or patient experience. An investment in learning directly from customers, patients, providers, and associates about their experiences reveals strategic insights and opportunities that cannot be discovered in board rooms and Zoom calls. When organizations ground the priorities of their digital strategy on research and experience insights, they have a far greater chance of realizing the potential of their digital strategy investments.
2. Pair a Bold Vision with a Shared KPI
Digital transformation requires deep partnership across all functional areas of an organization. With that in mind, executive healthcare leaders must align on a vision statement or “North Star” that guides decisions on the direction and priorities of the digital strategy. Gathering executive leaders across the organization to collaborate and co-define a vision statement for the future is a critical step in establishing a sustainable partnership toward ambitious goals.
Once leadership aligns on a vision statement, they must commit to a shared, measurable key performance indicator (KPI). Establishing a primary KPI upfront is essential. Often, when organizations begin to mobilize a digital transformation, new initiative requests bubble up as suggested priorities of the digital strategy. It’s easy to fall into the trap of saying “yes” to initiatives without a firm KPI in place. A recent survey of executive leaders revealed that of the cumulative $1.3 trillion dollars spent on digital transformation, $900 billion was wasted when initiatives didn’t meet business goals.⁴ A relentless focus on a priority KPI provides leaders with a clear focus on what to prioritize and what to defer.
3. Infuse Technology into Strategy
A digital strategy without an underpinning technology strategy is destined to gather dust on a shelf. Healthcare organizations must integrate their business strategy and technology strategy from the very beginning. By including architects early and often, healthcare organizations ideate future state digital solutions that not only achieve KPIs and customer priorities but are technically viable and scalable. A technology perspective must accompany every step of strategy development — from research to capability assessment, to ideation, prioritization, roadmap creation, and business case. Including technology, enterprise architecture, and data strategy upfront pays dividends in mobilizing the strategy toward execution quickly and successfully.
4. Enable and Operationalize the Digital Strategy
For many healthcare organizations, a digital transformation represents an entirely new enterprise-wide initiative. Without governance, roles, responsibilities, and ways of working, digital strategy execution teams lose valuable time deciphering how best to collaborate and execute. Establish a clear governance and operating model for the digital strategy upfront and activate a steering committee of executive leaders to guide direction long-term.
5. Mobilize the Digital Strategy
The true work of digital strategy begins after the strategy is defined and it’s time to execute. For many healthcare organizations, this is the hardest part of bringing digital transformation to life. To accelerate from strategy to execution, organizations must consider three key mobilizing factors: change management, program enablement, and implementation or delivery model.
Typically, a digital transformation represents a seismic shift within a healthcare organization. With that in mind, healthcare leaders benefit from defining a clear change management plan, and the right champions and agents for change within the organization. Beyond change management, healthcare organizations must consider the way in which digital strategy initiatives will operate. Establishing a framework for governance, roles, responsibilities, intake and prioritization cultivates a structured, consistent, measurable approach to execution. Lastly, a strong perspective on implementation or delivery model helps organizations clarify how teams will function to develop and launch new features. Agile delivery models that empower scrum teams to self-organize, prioritize, and deliver offer a strong framework for moving digital initiatives from idea to production efficiently and effectively.
Concluding Thoughts
The healthcare landscape continues to shift before our very eyes. New paradigms for healthcare are forcing health systems to respond differently to customer preferences, invest in new technologies, and experiment with novel operating models and ways of doing work — all while staying up-to-date and compliant with new privacy trends and an evolving market. Digital transformation represents a key focal point in this shifting landscape. In a world that increasingly prioritizes digital-first, patient-centric experiences, healthcare organizations can leverage a strategic digital transformation plan to successfully adapt to today’s new norms. By building a thoughtful, experience-led, holistic digital strategy, healthcare organizations can rise to today’s new challenges.
SOURCES
- Harvard Business Review, Digital Transformation Is Not About Technology, March 13, 2019.
- Gartner, Realizing the Benefits of Superior Customer Experience, May 11, 2018.
- Harvard Business Review, The Customer Experience in Health Care: New Journeys Ahead, 2021.
- Harvard Business Review, Digital Transformation Is Not About Technology, March 13, 2019.
Meet the Author:
Kat Saks is a Slalom leader who partners with clients to define and execute Digital Strategy and Marketing Technology solutions that enhance customer experiences.
Slalom is a modern consulting firm focused on strategy, technology and business transformation. Our healthcare and life sciences industry teams partner with healthcare, biotech and pharmaceutical leaders to strengthen their organizations, improve their systems, and help with some of their most strategic business challenges. Find out more about our people, our company and what we do.
