Staff Augmentation: A Model for Expanding Your Healthcare Tech Team

Technology is a vital part of healthcare delivery today. Healthcare technology also presents a significant economic opportunity, as the global healthcare information technology market size is estimated at $167.7 billion, with significant growth opportunities going forward. However, healthcare technology is becoming increasingly complex, with developers needing knowledge of a wide variety of topics, such as laboratory informatics, clinical informatics, data analytics, user experience development, regulatory compliance, and telehealth.

It can be challenging for a growing organization to have expertise in all these areas and for established organizations to keep up with the changing landscape due to limited time. Organizations looking to develop or enhance their healthcare technology can benefit from staff augmentation to accelerate the role of technology product development or modification.

This blog post explores the concept of staff augmentation, its role in accelerating product development, and how it can be leveraged effectively to bring healthcare technology products to market quicker.

What Is Staff Augmentation?

In the realm of hiring models, staff augmentation stands out as a flexible and cost-effective approach. Unlike traditional hiring methods, where one might hire an employee to work for an organization for the long term, staff augmentation involves adding to an organization's existing in-house team with external consultants or specialists. This model of utilizing consultants is particularly prevalent in healthcare; the global healthcare consulting industry is estimated to be worth over $21 billion, with many consulting support services going to healthcare software and hardware needs. These consultants or specialists tend to help fill out gaps in your organization’s staffing and already come in with experience and knowledge to help you complete your desired project goals.

The Power of Staff Augmentation in Speeding Up Product Development

Addressing Resource Constraints and Tight Deadlines

Product development often faces resource limitations and tight timelines. Staff augmentation can help overcome these challenges by providing access to specialized talent and additional resources that can speed up the process of achieving your product development goals. For instance, consultants with expertise in cloud computing security can contribute to transitioning a healthcare organization’s clinical and educational efforts to the cloud. Alternatively, consultants experienced with medical record auditing can contribute their knowledge to ensure a smooth billing process between what is documented in the electronic medical record and what is ultimately billed and collected.

Like many other technologies, healthcare information technology software is frequently being updated, and consultants can support your staff and teach your team best practices to be more efficient going forward.

Leveraging Experiences from Other Institutions

Augmented staff often bring valuable experiences from working with other healthcare institutions. Consequently, expanding your team with consultants and specialists can reduce the time and costs that your organization devotes to training and development. Experienced specialists also enable organizations to operate more efficiently, as they can lend insight into previously witnessed situations. For example, consultants know about integrating new healthcare IT technology with existing systems in hospitals and avoiding pitfalls like the lack of integration standards, limited personnel, and security risks.

By drawing on these diverse experiences, product development can be streamlined and mistakes can be avoided, leading to faster product time-to-market.

Best Practices for Utilizing Staff Augmentation in Product Development

Selecting the Right Augmentation Partner

When you’re considering staff augmentation, it is crucial to choose the right partner. Factors like culture fit and specific expertise in the skill set that you are looking for, such as healthcare IT development experience, knowledge of business intelligence algorithms, or familiarity with government security and compliance regulations, should be carefully evaluated.

Hiring mistakes can be expensive because they waste both time and financial resources, making the selection process critical. Organizations seeking staff augmentation should receive input on the feasibility of the project’s goals and the resources required to complete the goal. This can allow for appropriate planning of the project’s timeline and enable your project to stay within budget.

Embracing Your In-House Staff

Ultimately, your in-house staff will be responsible for the continuing maintenance of your healthcare technology product. Your company’s image will also be at stake with the product’s implementation, rather than the image of the consultants who are only temporarily involved. As a result, an organization developing or improving technology should embrace its in-house staff and make sure they feel active in the development process. Let the in-house staff lead, seek their input, and make sure the in-house staff has the opportunity to learn from the consultants and specialists so your product is effective for the long term.

Promoting Clear Communication and Collaboration

Effective communication and collaboration between the in-house team and augmented staff are vital for successful product development. Clear expectations, project goals, and regular feedback channels should be established to ensure seamless integration. When feasible, augmented staff should be brought on-site to collaborate with your in-house staff in person, as better rapport and familiarity can lead to a more productive workflow and the completion of target goals more quickly.

Organizations should not be afraid to leverage the use of remote specialists and consultants if they feel that those individuals can still make an impact.

Conclusion

Staff augmentation offers numerous benefits for accelerating healthcare technology product development. By harnessing the expertise of external consultants and specialists, organizations can overcome resource constraints, tap into specialized skills, and expedite product time-to-market. Clear communication, careful staff augmentation selection, and seamless integration between in-house and augmented staff are essential for maximizing the benefits of staff augmentation.

As organizations strive for healthcare information technology innovation and market competitiveness, they should consider the utility of staff augmentation as a tool for achieving product development goals.

Here at OtterSoft, we help healthcare technology providers drive innovation and integrate smoothly with legacy systems to keep things in motion, address the challenges of healthcare innovation, and seamlessly keep information in sync. Please get in touch with us today to see how we can help you overcome healthcare innovation challenges by strategically augmenting your team!