“Healthcare is in a transitional landscape—a volatile one.”
Kody Johnston, MSN, RN, made this statement on a recent Practically Genius podcast episode. As a Nurse Informaticist Specialist, he’s seen first-hand the impact of the last few years on healthcare professionals.
It’s not pretty. Healthcare workers are overburdened and at capacity. From navigating the chaos of a worldwide pandemic to keeping up with regulation changes, the healthcare industry is at a breaking point. Workers are burnt out, patients expect more communication and transparency, and processes that have served institutions for years are no longer sufficient.
This situation has brought forth major volatility across hospital systems as they try their best to adapt to a digital-first environment while dealing with staff shortages and burnout. Luckily, there is a solution that can help healthcare organizations improve how they serve all constituents, including patients, techs, office staff, and physicians. It’s called no-code.
“No- and low-code is ripe to create solutions, digitize paper processes, and leverage really big integration wins to help the workforce have less burden and to answer those constraints,” Kody said. Below, we dive into three benefits healthcare organizations can expect from no-code tools.
1. Empower Staff and Move Faster
Now more than ever, it’s important for healthcare facilities to be able to move fast. Whether to adjust to changes in regulations or adapt to patient expectations, it’s never been more necessary to empower staff with tools they can use to craft their own solutions.
Your staff—from clinicians and techs to office staff and operations—are all trying to solve big problems, from delivering on patient expectations to addressing digitization needs. Are you empowering them with the right tools to solve these problems easily? Kody explains:
With no-code, all types of healthcare professionals can feel empowered to suggest new ways to serve patients, improve processes, and adapt to a rapidly changing healthcare market. This technology enables healthcare facilities to not only move faster but rely less on their IT teams thanks to citizen developers.
Because these tools require zero coding or technical expertise, any employee can quickly pick them up. A singular tool, such as a workflow automation platform, can be used by all employees and locations for multiple processes. Using a single platform organization wide can result in:
- Cleaner data
- Leaner tech stacks
- Less reliance on IT
- Better agility
- Improved productivity
“No-code is a strategically placed tool that can meet many solutions as it pertains to clinical solutions, patient solutions, operational solutions, and health and life science solutions,” Kody stated. With no-code in your org’s tech stack, employees of all departments can feel empowered to ideate, build, and implement solutions quickly.
2. Improve Communication Across Care Teams
A lot must happen when a patient transfers from care at your facility to another. Even when a transfer is within the same healthcare network, there’s possibly paperwork, many levels of communication, and multiple steps or processes to follow. Ever wish you could make the transition less cumbersome? No-code may be the answer.
“In that handoff, there's a lot of documentation,” Kody said. “Because it's normally involved with external parties having to integrate somehow with each other, communicate, and care coordinate, it just makes it really redundant.” Luckily, no-code can help improve these transitions of care in multiple ways.
Share Data Securely
No-code tools are generally simpler to integrate, whether through native integrations or APIs, making it easier for data to move from your facility to the next. With the right no-code app, you can skip the paperwork, manual data entry, and data rekeying that causes a majority of the redundancies Kody discussed.
But don’t think these tools skimp on security just because they make it simpler to transfer data. There are plenty of enterprise-grade no-code solutions for healthcare that can simplify processes without sacrificing security. There are great no-code tools out there that can make transferring data across locations or to external partners easier while maintaining high levels of security and compliance.
Automate Communications
When transferring a patient’s care, communication is crucial. Not only between the care teams but with the patient as well. No-code tools can automate much of this communication, allowing your team to set up emails, alerts, and other helpful communications throughout the process. Simply craft your message, add logic, and set up triggers based on actions, submissions, or approvals, and let the tool take care of the rest.
Eliminate Paper
If you’re stuck in paper processes, no-code is here to help. Say goodbye to the days of having to print, manually transcribe, and fax over transfer paperwork. Many no-code tools provide ways to create medical records that can be stored in an EHR or securely shared with external vendors. Save time, improve the quality of data, and remove manual work so the care teams can focus on patients—not paperwork.
3. Modernize the Entire Patient Experience
Patients don’t just want to be served digitally—they expect it. If your organization doesn’t have a strong digital front door, it’s highly likely patients will choose a competitor for their care.
To capture and retain the most patients, that digital front door must extend into every facet of your facility. Each step of the patient journey needs to be as smooth, seamless, and stress-free as possible. Make this a reality by identifying ways to eliminate paper processes, streamline data collection, and automate when possible.
Here are just a few ways no-code can be used to modernize the patient journey:
- Automate text message reminders and communication
- Allow online appointment booking
- Enable real-time medical record updates and requests
- Digitize insurance workflows and approvals
- Prefill patient forms with existing data
No-code can provide patients better processes, improve access to data, and enable faster interactions. Yet the benefits of modernizing the patient experience through no-code trickle down to providers as well:
Overall, no-code is a win-win for patients and providers. Patients end up happier with their experience and care, while providers are able to save valuable time and energy.
Fueling Practical Innovation with No-Code
“If you're not innovating, you're dying as an organization. Especially in healthcare, when there's insurance involvement and payee government regulations we have to account for,” Kody shared. “We have to be nimble and find ways to adapt. I believe no-code, low-code, and citizen development is the best thing you can do right now to do that.”
