PICOT question: “Among the Geriatric population with multiple chronic illnesses (P), does the implementation of a chronic care model toolkit and remote patient monitoring with subsequent evaluation for its efficacy (I), compared to the usual reactionary treatment in hospitals (C) improve the quality of care (O) over a three month period (T)?”
Organizations working in the health care sector change themselves and contribute to change every day – they affect the population, adapt working approaches, and constantly improve to provide the best services. While changes can be stressful, they are needed to develop health care, react to urgent problems, innovate, and create new working methods. However, despite the critical need for change, initiatives to implement them may be defeated and not achieve the established goal.
There are many obstacles that may hinder the implementation of change initiatives. Airiodion and Rolley (2021) identify such categories of obstacles as individuals, departments, management, change managers, technology, and third-party support. These problems are organizational obstacles and, despite their importance, have little impact on the step of project preparation. However, the authors emphasize that knowledge of the source of a potential challenge is essential to determining the measure to prevent it. This rule is relevant for all stages, and for this reason, it is important to consider potential problems.
One of the challenges for my project I see in finding enough chronic disease patients among the geriatric population who will agree to remote surveillance. Older people prefer standard treatments, and the personal opinion of the doctor is important to them. A potential solution to this challenge is to persuade some patients suitable for the requirements of the project to take advantage of the chronic care model toolkit and remote patient monitoring capabilities. The attraction for them can be – saving time and effort due to the absence of regular visits. Moreover, remote monitoring contributes to greater security, especially in pandemic settings. However, the use of technology, despite its high level of development, is still fraught with risks. Moreover, given the age of patients, it is important to show flexibility and be prepared for problems. To quickly solve any issues, it is necessary to develop good relationships with IT partners and study and test the tools that will be used.
Another potential obstacle is a lack of understanding among participants. Getting to know new care tools, using them, and maintaining order in accordance with them can be difficult. To prevent this problem, I need to carefully work out a communication plan and provide patients with knowledge and guidelines. Moreover, it is necessary to create training materials that will be clear and explain various aspects of the work. Another measure is the assistants’ help in the first stages of implementing new measures and the opportunity for patients to contact them. If project participants feel confident in their actions and know they will receive help, the results will be more accurate.
Besides the participants’ lack of understanding, an obstacle to the project may be my own confusion. The project is large, and it is possible to miss any important detail. To mitigate this challenge, a detailed strategic implementation plan should be established. It is important to envisage not only concrete steps that will be taken but also actions in case of problems that are discussed here.
Thus, there are many obstacles that can interfere with the implementation of the project. However, working on them and thinking about the ways to mitigate the challenges will make the work easier. Among the potential problems for my project, I highlight the lack of understanding of participants – both patients and my own in implementation. This issue can be solved with a carefully crafted strategy for change managers and conducting training for patients. Another challenge is the search for the required number of participants, the main solution of which is to develop a negotiating strategy to convince them of the benefits of the program. Finally, the technical side of the project – the use of technology requires change managers to work closely with IT partners and provide assistance and advice to patients.
Reference
Airiodion, O., & Crolley, F. Resolving barriers to change in healthcare & physicians | 2021 Guide. Airiodion Global Services. Web.