Equally important is reducing friction for SCL’s front-line workers. The next question Richardville asks when making technology decisions: “How do we manage to take care of our caregivers as well as those who are receiving care from us?”
While IT solutions that simplify the patient experience often make practitioners’ jobs easier at the same time, attention to the needs of the workforce is particularly urgent at a time when about one in five healthcare workers has left the industry — a trend that is likely to magnify existing issues of access and equity.
Connection is the key.
Richardville’s passion for the human side of technology isn’t limited to SCL Health, either. He cites a willingness to act as both a teacher and a learner within a large, diverse professional network as a major factor in his organization’s ability to identify, adopt and optimize the right solutions for their patients and practitioners: “We learn from others, so if we see a great success story, we see if it’s a solution we can apply or reapply with modifications — so we’re not only innovative but imitative. We have to create things, but we can also take what others have created and make them our own and personalize them for the communities we serve.”
From formal panels to casual networking conversations, Richardville is always finding inspiration in his peers’ and colleagues’ efforts to drive progress in patient care — and he encourages other healthcare IT leaders to do the same.
“You’re not in it alone,” he says. “Open up your network, communicate, contact others, be vulnerable, share some of your pain points, share some of the things you’re looking to solve for and lead your organization. In many cases, the answer is in the room. You just need to create a bigger room.”