Resistance to new technology in Healthcare

No one likes to feel resistance from staff, especially around systems that are designed to make their lives easier, but resistance - whether passive (like low usage and technology workarounds) or active (like complaints, escalations or refusals to work) - is a signal. Ignoring it and pressing on without consulting your teams about their frustrations is when clinicians and support staff are unfairly labelled as ‘difficult’ and their behaviour is seen as challenging, rather than a symptom of their frustrations. 

These frustrations can range in severity, from simply not enjoying using the technology to fear for patient safety.

When you experience resistance from your staff, it’s important to consider: 

• How the technology is designed and whether it’s user-friendly
• Whether it matches the clinical reality of your team’s work
• How severe the consequences are on patient safety for misusing the technology

Resistance is not only feedback but also an opportunity for course correction. 

Technology resistance is not necessarily ‘one size fits all’. Your team’s background and digital skillset will determine what challenges they may be facing. 

Common issues include increased workload, systems which are not intuitive, feeling excluded from decision making, fears around patient safety and having a poor prior experience with similar types of technology.

Pressure

Most healthcare technology is designed for efficiency. But sometimes on the frontline, that doesn’t feel true. Teams are already stretched as a result of staff shortages and more people in their care who are living longer with more complex needs. Add technology onto this and it doesn’t take long for the workload to feel overwhelming. 

It’s not just learning how to operate the technologies. It’s remembering to use them and adding them into what is often already a structured workflow.

Workflows

Well-made and thoughtfully designed healthcare technology should ease the burden of workers in this sector. So when it’s not built for purpose, it’s difficult to use and workflows become misaligned. 

What that means in practice is that tasks take longer to do, creating frustrations around tasks and what value technology is adding. 

Decision-making

Autonomy is a big consideration in an increasingly digital world. Those with years of experience and significant healthcare qualifications can feel that they don’t have a purpose when their voice is removed from the decision-making process. This form of resistance can lead to more apathy and general dissatisfaction in their jobs. 

Risk

When accountability for patient safety relies on the people who administer care, technology can create a fear around making mistakes. Teams may feel more cautious around technology and their resistance is more likely to be passive.  

Previous experiences 

It takes a lot of mental power to understand a new system and how it applies within the workplace, so when systems change too often it can create fatigue in healthcare teams. 

Alternatively, staff may have had a bad experience with previous technology which means that they are less willing to try a new system, in favour of sticking to what they know. 

The current cultural context of healthcare makes change harder. Not only are decision-making structures highly embedded but healthcare teams are used to taking accountability for decisions and proceeding with caution for patient care, rather than with experimentation.

Healthcare and patient safety cannot be left to chance. Decisions must be recorded and evidenced to protect not only the patients but the teams making the decisions. Moving fast is not a well-revered value within the industry. It’s much more acceptable to approach with caution towards the best possible outcome.

The organisational structure of the healthcare industry also has an effect. People within it are often extremely knowledgeable and many are highly specialised in what they do, which creates strong professional identities around autonomy. Clinicians expect to be able to make decisions about their patients' health. When technology removes this, it undermines their credentials.

The solution to technology resistance is not to ignore the problem, or to avoid implementing new technology. Technology can be rolled out successfully in a way that speeds up workflows and keeps your staff and patients happy. 

The Planning Stage

The most important work starts in the planning stage. This is where you want to involve your frontline healthcare teams as much as possible to understand their pain points. This will help you co-design a workflow that manages their challenges in real-world scenarios. 

This research helps you get a better understanding of how your organisation currently functions. From there you can:

• Map current state workflows
• Remove existing tasks before adding more
• Automate tasks where possible
• Create role-specific technologies, rather than a standardised rollout

Launching new technology before workflows are designed and understood can create problems in the long run.

The Deployment Stage

This is where an organisation like The Access Group has a chance to shine. Successful implementation of a new solution reduces the chance of problems with training and subsequent uptake, and that quality of service helps change attitudes and change the culture around new technology from one of hesitance to one of readiness; cautious, but willing.

Thanks to the new AI empowerment of our Access Evo platform, we’re able to develop quicker, test quicker, fix errors quicker, and deploy quicker – all of which benefits our customers and their patient first obligations.

The Training Stage

Training your teams on new technology is about much more than just knowing how to use a system. It’s also about providing a supportive environment, one where staff feel reassured that they won’t be to blame for issues with the system. 

Role-specific support must be delivered, with help learning and using systems on the job. Technology champions and super-users can be helpful at this stage, especially if you can identify individuals who have an optimistic attitude towards the technology and can positively influence their peers.

It’s important that training sessions do not become the crutch for all ‘on the job’ based usage, however. There should also be an appropriate amount of time where staff can use technology within a live environment and be spoken to in non-technical language to facilitate their learning. 

The best way to measure whether you have successfully rolled out a friction-free technology system is by looking at success through the lens of staff adoption and patient outcomes. Some of these will be immediately clear.

For example, you’ll begin to detect trends around decreasing duplication of data and cleaner records much sooner than positive patient outcomes. Staff satisfaction will also be another indicator that you have successfully deployed your new technology.

In time, decision-making will become faster and your patients will receive - and come to expect - a more positive experience. Technology may not even be mentioned in these moments, which is a good thing. The aim is for technology to work as an invisible partner to your staff, making their jobs more efficient and more easily manageable.

While frontline staff will be core indicators of successful technology transitions, leadership teams also play a part in influencing those attitudes. When frontline teams feel included in - and supported through - rollouts which are timed to avoid busy periods, where possible, and have the backing of leaders who feel confident about the benefits, they are less likely to exhibit resistance.

Leadership teams are key to creating and maintaining a positive narrative around new technologies, and for ensuring that staff have the appropriate channels to raise their concerns and challenges.

It’s often not the tech itself that is the problem as evidenced by organisations who have rolled out complex systems with excellent support and training. Resistance comes from poorly-managed change and a lack of post-rollout support.

Sensing resistance within your organisation is not an immediate signal that you’re doing something wrong, but it is vital feedback that something needs to change. Organisations that listen to staff, involve them in decisions and design with their workloads in mind experience faster tech adoptions, which leads to better patient outcomes.

It’s why digital transformation in healthcare is often seen as a human challenge as much as a technical one.