What moves the needle forward in an integration process? What slows things down?
To a team like ours here at FiveSix Healthcare, it’s all of the little pieces. To an in-house team, however, larger factors like bloated vendors, redundancies, and inefficient processes can be the primary catalysts for bogged down, slowed integrations.
With decades of combined experience integrating practices nationwide, we’ve seen just about everything there is to see around the integration process. We’ve aggregated the most likely reasons your integration team isn’t moving as quickly as it should be– and the easiest ways to correct and realign.
The problem: Vendors don’t care about your timeline
No matter what platform you use for your practice, it’s no secret that it’s not always easy to navigate the vendors that come with it. Answers can be hard to come by, simple solutions nearly impossible to get, and timeliness isn’t always a priority. If you’re relying on vendors to help you integrate, it’s important to realize that your timeline usually isn’t theirs. They may have dozens of requests in queue, and while they’ll likely get to you eventually, you’ll have to be content with waiting until then.
The solution: Don’t deal with vendors at all
Whether you tap a team like ours that collaborates with vendors on behalf of our clients, or you dedicate an in-house team member as the sole vendor point person, it’s important that you free up the rest of your team from the vendor timeline. Introducing an integration plan with one consistent touchpoint can make it much easier for you to get what you need from a vendor (or determine if it makes sense to go another route), and prevent the rest of the team from getting sucked into the waiting game if and when vendor responses take too long or aren’t enough.
The problem: The wait has become a part of the process
Even the best in-house integration teams have things they can’t always control. Unforeseen issues have a way of sidelining timelines and making things harder. But one thing that can be controlled is just how long your process takes. Integrations don’t have to take the better part of a year. In fact, done right, they can take less than 90 days. It’s important to prepare for issues that may arise in an integration- things like data translation, missing files, and the like. But preparing for a blown timeline is something that doesn’t have to happen.
The solution: Work with a team that gets it done faster
Here at FiveSix Healthcare, we don’t work with teams to take over integrations. We provide the streamlined, efficient system that already-productive teams need to take their integration processes from good to great. We complete integrations in half the time it takes vendors, because integration is all we know. We don’t cut corners, we don’t say we can’t, and we don’t do cookie cutter solutions. Waiting doesn’t have to be a part of the process when you partner with a team that eliminates bloat and inefficiency.
The problem: You’re approaching every integration the same way
Efficiency is key in integrations- but you can only be as efficient as you are creative. When teams tap us, it’s not because they can’t integrate a new practice into their new system themselves- it’s because they need a better, faster, more effective way to do it. Approaching integrations with a cookie-cutter lens can have you forcing a square peg into a round hole, and your timeline will suffer for it. Every practice is different, and these nuances have to be accounted for in order to make sure data is accurately migrated, incoming patient experience is ideal, and all time spent on the integration is well spent.
The solution: Diversify your thinking
Integrations are designed to make the best out of acquiring practices. Patients should feel that they’re receiving the same great care they always have- and providers should have the data they need so they don’t miss a beat.
The team at FiveSix Healthcare exists to provide the kind of strategy and implementation model that makes integration effective, efficient, and productive, despite the nuances of every practice.
Scale integration speed and enjoy a more fluid process when you partner with our experts for your integration needs. Contact us to explore what makes us unique!