Roundtable Healthcare | Workplace care in practice

Getting workstations up and running, managing and replacing devices, answering queries… IT departments in healthcare organisations have their hands full. Every day, these kinds of repetitive tasks take up your team’s time. You can hand over some of these tasks to an IT partner. But how do you prepare for that step? What exactly will change for staff and your IT department once the new way of working is up and running? And how does your IT department ensure it continues to receive relevant insights when you outsource tasks?

We’ll be discussing these issues on Thursday 19 November. We’re bringing together healthcare organisations that are exploring more extensive workplace outsourcing and those that are already utilising it. During this roundtable, you’ll hear about the choices they’ve made, the challenges they’ve faced and the practical benefits of their approach. You’ll have the opportunity to ask direct questions on the topics that matter most to your organisation.

Comprehensive workplace support involves more than just supplying devices. An IT partner can also take on tasks relating to setting up, managing, supporting and replacing devices. Deciding which tasks to outsource requires clear choices and agreements.

This may also mean a change in the role of your IT department. It will spend less time on day-to-day operational tasks and focus more on overseeing the service provision. You can set out on paper what such a partnership would look like. However, the questions that determine your choice often only become clear when you hear how other healthcare organisations have approached it.

Experts from Bechtle will be present at the roundtable to answer technical questions and explain their experiences. The roundtable is all about sharing insights between healthcare organisations, without lengthy presentations or sales pitches.

The roundtable is intended for existing Bechtle clients in the care and cure sectors who are already considering the next step in workplace management. For example, if you recognise one or more of the following situations:

• Your IT department spends a lot of time on recurring workplace management tasks. These include arranging new devices, providing support when problems arise, or replacing devices. You want to explore which tasks you could organise differently.
• You want to know what is required to take the pressure off your own organisation. Which processes and information do you need to have in place before an IT partner can take over tasks? Which decisions do you need to continue making yourself?
• You are looking for guidance on how to prepare. You have already discussed workplace services, but want to hear from other healthcare organisations about how they moved from the exploratory phase to implementation.
• You want to understand what will change for staff. How will healthcare professionals be provided with a ready-to-use workplace? Where can they go with questions? How do you introduce a new way of working across different locations?
• You want to hear about experiences after the transition has been made. How is collaboration working in day-to-day practice, where was extra coordination needed, and what results are other organisations seeing in the short and longer term?

We deliberately keep the group small. With eight to ten organisations, there is time to probe further and discuss differences between healthcare organisations. The topics arise from practical experiences and questions raised during the roundtable. These include:

• Roadmap to comprehensive workplace management: why did other healthcare organisations choose to outsource a larger proportion of their workplace management? What options did they explore, and what factors did they take into account?
• Preparation within the organisation: what did they need to know about their existing devices, work processes and support? Who was involved in the preparation, and which decisions could only be made at a later stage?
• Implementation and adoption: how did the transition to a different way of working go? What questions arose from IT colleagues and healthcare staff? And what still required attention after the launch?
• The division of responsibilities. Which tasks fall to the partner and which remain with the healthcare organisation? How does the IT department maintain oversight of service delivery, and how do you discuss areas for improvement?
• Collaboration in day-to-day practice. What happens when a staff member needs a new device or gets stuck with something? Which arrangements work well, and where did adjustments prove necessary?
• Short- and long-term results. What are the organisations that already outsource a great deal noticing as a result of this choice? Which expectations were met, and which experiences actually surprised them?