Boston, MA, USA - December 7, 2022: A recent survey of over 200 IT healthcare leaders in the United States commissioned by Flywire (Nasdaq: FLYW), a global payments enablement and software company, found that healthcare IT leaders are seeing their roles expand and become more connected to the patient experience. But as the responsibilities for delivering a good patient experience increase, it naturally makes the job more complex: 94% of healthcare IT leaders surveyed say the job is more complex than it was five years ago, and 88% of those surveyed say they’ve taken on tasks outside of their role as it is traditionally defined.
In its new report, Behind the EHR: Healthcare's hidden heroes of patient experience, Flywire examined the evolving role of healthcare IT leaders, the influence they have on improving the patient experience, and the technology and personnel challenges they are facing in their expanding positions.
As the IT role evolves, a good patient experience becomes top of mind
While the overall patient experience is traditionally synonymous with the clinical side of healthcare, IT leaders within healthcare organizations are equally committed to improving patient satisfaction. In fact, 96% of respondents say that one of the best parts of working in healthcare IT is that they feel like what they do actually helps people.
And as their roles evolve, the performance of healthcare IT leaders will be more closely tied to the patient experience. According to the survey, 98% of IT professionals said that when it comes to the roles and responsibilities by which they are measured, improving patient experience and patient satisfaction is important. A full 90% say they’re being measured against patient collections metrics. Looking ahead five years, 86% say their role in improving their organization’s overall patient experience will be bigger.
According to one survey respondent, “the IT leadership role will become more involved and connected to the patient experience. Data engineering and analysis and AI will be the technologies that tie everything together.”
With IT understaffed, their sights turn to technology
IT leaders at hospitals and health systems continue to take on more responsibilities, with 92% saying they need to think much more about business outcomes. Despite this significant expansion of responsibilities, over half of leaders say that they are not receiving resources to meet it.
This shift has IT leaders thinking about the technology needed to reconcile these staff shortages. 94% say they have to almost constantly think about the role of emerging tech in the healthcare space. Looking ahead, over nine in ten healthcare IT leaders say predictive technologies, such as AI and/or machine learning, will be important to their business over the next five years.
Payment security, PCI compliance, and management of Electronic Health Records (EHRs) are among their key concerns
Healthcare IT leaders have a lot on their minds, and there are a few issues keeping them up at night. 67% of respondents believe IT is the department most responsible for payment security, and need more resources to protect their organizations from payment security risks. Specifically, 75% say when it comes to payment security, their organization needs to invest more to ensure PCI compliance.
IT leaders remain responsible for the management of their EHR systems, and that role continues to increase in complexity. Respondents stated that the top overall challenges when managing an EHR system include integration with other systems (55%), security issues/concerns (45%) and staffing issues (38%). As connection points to the EHR systems increase, IT leaders state that tight integrations with the EHR (97%) and a streamlined implementation process (95%) are all important considerations to make when choosing to work with an outside technology vendor.
“The role of the IT leader within healthcare organizations is becoming more complex at the same time that the focus on patient outcomes continues to heighten across the industry,” said John Talaga, EVP of Healthcare, Flywire. “And while EHRs can handle basic patient needs when it comes to the overall financial experience, healthcare IT leaders need more. Technologies that specialize in creating a better patient financial journey are becoming more and more important in delivering satisfaction and winning patient loyalty.”
David King, Flywire’s Chief Technology Officer, continued:
“Flywire’s financial engagement and payment platform modernizes the way provider organizations communicate and collect out-of-pocket balances, improving both the patient experience and self-pay performance. With deep expertise in integrating our solution with the world’s leading EHR systems, including Epic and Cerner, Flywire uses best-in-class, consumer-driven technologies to enhance the financial experience within EHR systems.”
To experience the full, interactive report, visit: Behind the EHR: Healthcare's hidden heroes of patient experience
Survey Methodology
Flywire commissioned Regina Corso Consulting to conduct a survey of 224 healthcare IT leaders, so those who are IT Decision Makers and work in a hospital and/or health system, to understand how they fit into the hierarchy of their organization, their attitudes on third party vendors as well as how they fit into the patient experience. This survey was conducted online between September 7 and 23, 2022. Percentages may not add up to 100% due to rounding or because the question was a multiple response allowed item.
About Flywire
Flywire is a global payments enablement and software company. We combine our proprietary global payments network, next-gen payments platform and vertical-specific software to deliver the most important and complex payments for our clients and their customers.
Flywire leverages its vertical-specific software and payments technology to deeply embed within the existing A/R workflows for its clients across the education, healthcare and travel vertical markets, as well as in key B2B industries. Flywire also integrates with leading ERP systems, such as NetSuite, so organizations can optimize the payment experience for their customers while eliminating operational challenges.
Flywire supports more than 3,000 clients with diverse payment methods in more than 140 currencies across 240 countries and territories around the world. Flywire is headquartered in Boston, MA, USA with global offices. For more information, visit www.flywire.com. Follow Flywire on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.
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