4 Reasons Your Healthcare IT May Need Team Augmentation

Healthcare technology is a highly complex field that requires expertise in multiple domains, including healthcare, technology development, technology integration, and regulatory compliance. Developing and implementing novel healthcare technologies can be challenging because organizations may lack the necessary skills and knowledge in all these areas. Alternatively, they may have limited resources, such as a small number of in-house personnel to address large projects like integrating and transitioning an electronic medical record.

To address these shortcomings, many industries, including healthcare technology developers, are turning to team augmentation and hiring consultants who can provide valuable support. Let’s explore the benefits of augmenting a team with technology development partners in healthcare IT.

1. Access to a wider pool of skilled professionals

In-house staff may not always possess the expertise required to tackle the complex needs of developing and implementing novel healthcare technologies. Staff augmentation enables organizations to tap into a broader pool of skilled professionals who specialize in specific projects or tasks. For example, while your team may excel in back-end coding for an electronic medical record (EMR) system, they may need front-end usability skills. By bringing in consultants with experience in EMR integration, you can take your technology to organizations and make it seamless for providers to adopt it quickly. Peer-review literature promotes the use of consultants as a way to staff up during an EMR transition.

Another example of knowledge gaps that are challenging to upkeep is regulatory compliance for many new healthcare technology companies. Understanding liability issues, the HITECH Act, HIPAA, and other regulatory requirements can consume a significant amount of your in-house staff’s time. Consequently, using consultants who have previous experience with regulatory compliance and have already done the legwork to understand these rules can save your team time and money and ensure that your technology remains compliant.

2. Flexibility in completing critical IT projects

Staff augmentation provides healthcare systems with greater flexibility in completing critical IT projects because the unique skill sets that the specialists have will alleviate burdens and challenges for your in-house staff.

If the needs of a project are temporary or only one-time, an in-house team likely would benefit more from understanding and implementing longitudinal aspects of the technology. Rather than recruiting full-time employees, organizations can save time and financial resources by outsourcing these efforts to external experts, freeing up time for your in-house staff. Flexibility may also be offered in terms of the resources and contacts that the outside specialists may have.

Team augmentation can bring optionality in terms of solutions to a given challenge. Flexibility in how you utilize your resources and the possible solutions that are available to you combine to enable you to focus on core operations while leveraging specialized skills on demand to build and launch your product successfully.

3. Increased efficiency

Staff augmentation enables healthcare organizations to complete projects faster and more efficiently. Time is saved through a combination of factors, including decreased time devoted to recruiting and training and saved time by avoiding trial and error due to previous experience and expertise. Between the technology development and regulatory challenges, time-to-market is a significant challenge in healthcare technology, as the medical device development process ranges from three to eight years or beyond with devices posing intermediate to high risk.

Team augmentation with experienced professionals can accelerate the time to market for new healthcare technology products, leading to greater market share, revenue, and brand recognition.

4. Cost-effective solutions

Staff augmentation is a smart investment for organizations because it grants access to unique skill sets without hiring additional full-time employees. Consequently, organizations can save costs throughout the employee hiring and retention process, including recruiting, training, and longitudinal benefits. Moreover, utilizing consultants with experience maximizes your likelihood of finding people with the skill set that you need, minimizing the risk of costly, unnecessary hires. Finding employees with specific expertise, such as integrating new healthcare technology with existing technologies or connecting developing healthcare technology to cloud software, can be challenging due to the complex skills and knowledge that people need to have.

The cost benefits of utilizing consultants go beyond the savings in recruiting and training. Solutions that consultants can implement quickly can significantly increase your knowledge and enable you to implement solutions that save money in the long run. For example, over 40% of healthcare providers and payer organizations cite predictive analytics as a cost-saving practice when properly implemented. Therefore, consultants can offer cost savings from a wide range of perspectives, including the avoidance of extensive recruiting, reduced training costs, and implemented solutions that bring your organization increased value.

Conclusion

Augmenting your team with a technology development partner offers numerous benefits for healthcare technology development. It provides access to a larger pool of skilled professionals, enhances the optionality of solutions and resource utilization in completing critical projects, increases overall efficiency, and provides cost benefits.

By embracing team augmentation and outsourcing specialized, one-time challenges, organizations can bring their technology innovations to market more quickly, driving positive impacts in patient care, operational efficiency, and competitive advantage.

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!