The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in widespread disruptions across multiple industries, including healthcare. Companies and organizations have had to pivot focus and reinvent traditional approaches to longstanding processes in order to adapt to sudden changes. Eating out in restaurants has been replaced by food delivery. Classrooms have been replaced with online distance learning. The doctor’s office has been supplemented with telemedicine, remote monitoring and virtual visits.
For our team here at Nextech, making sure our clients could continue to operate effectively meant redirecting our development efforts to focus on new solutions such as telehealth and virtual waiting rooms. However, it also required us to creatively reconceptualize our implementation and go-live experience.
Navigating the New Norm
The disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic presented new challenges to practices needing to train on, implement and go live with new EHR and Practice Management solutions. In the past, such processes have commonly been performed on-site, with trainers physically present to guide physicians and staff through each level of product education. However, with practices across the country needing to maintain social distancing and protect staff as much as possible, these traditional methods were no longer adequate.
In order to make sure our clients could navigate implementation both safely and effectively, Nextech developed a new remote implementation methodology and process.
A Successful New Approach
To showcase the success of our new remote process, we recently conducted a case study to highlight one of our client’s recent experiences and remote implementation success. This practice found itself needing to go live with Nextech quickly, their timeline unexpectedly accelerated by the lockdowns and travel restrictions brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. They also wanted to ensure this could be done in a way that would protect staff from exposure risks. To accommodate their needs, Nextech provided a fully remote implementation experience.
There was apprehension at first, of course, but these worries quickly faded as everyone at the practice began the remote implementation process. Once completed, they actually found the remote implementation experience to be preferable to the traditional on-site process, as it allowed all of their staff (at multiple practices in separate locations) to complete the training together in a virtual environment.
Remote Implementation: Another “New Normal”
In these rapidly changing times, the idea of a “new normal” has almost become a cliché. There are so many “new normals”—masking up, social distancing and providing care in a new age of telemedicine. We believe that remote implementation will also become a part of this new age. Though it was created in response to the current pandemic, like telehealth it will continue on even after the crisis is over.
At Nextech, we have been fascinated to watch the advancements and changes taking place across various industries in response to the disruptions of COVID-19. If your practice has been considering implementing a new solution but has been hesitant to do so during these times, make sure to explore all options to see if there’s an approach that could be right for your practice.
To learn more about how Nextech can help you get up and running with a remote implementation and help your practice create a long-term strategy for overall success, fill out this form and a member of our team will be in touch soon.
