Kantonsspital Winterthur

Alexander Nelles

1. Having an extensive experience in the field how would you describe the development of healthcare to this day?

Over the years, I have perceived the level of development in digitalisation across various companies to be relatively homogeneous. Either they were highly advanced in all areas such as finance, operations, marketing, sales, HR, etc., or they were not. However, the healthcare industry is a different story for me. Medical services rely on technologically advanced systems and the progress in this area is advancing rapidly. On the other hand, when it comes to administrative aspects, I often see a very low level of digitalisation in these areas.

Despite the common goal of putting the patient at the centre, what I miss here is a focus on the patient's experience throughout the entire treatment process. Other industries are already much further ahead in this regard.

If we now pay more attention to the patient experience in the patient journey, we will automatically also have to take on the process perspective and inevitably become more efficient. In my opinion, that is what the healthcare system needs right now.

2. What are some new trends that are emerging in the healthcare industry?

On one hand, there is a trend that patients are getting older in the demographic shift. Elderly patients usually suffer from multiple diseases, which means that treating physicians must consider several ailments at the same time. On the other hand, the specialisation of physicians continues to advance. This leads to the fragmentation and increasing complexity of the patient's treatment path. It is crucial that we achieve a digital transformation to connect each stage effectively so that the required data can be transmitted securely and smoothly to the next stage in the treatment path. This will make it easier for the patient to navigate through the journey of their treatment.

Another trend is the increasing use of technological solutions that can take on tasks in the treatment path. Devices can monitor patients at home, telemedicine is gaining popularity and AI is already helping with pattern recognition. This is fantastic and can really push us forward. If we manage to implement these new technologies into our processes and integrate them into our core systems, I believe we can achieve a lot very soon.

Unfortunately, what is still missing is a better understanding of the value of data across hospitals. While data plays a significant role in research, it is still underdeveloped in the operational aspects of healthcare. I see that only a few have started to establish appropriate data warehouses or data lakes to build data science in their operations.

3. How can digital transformation succeed in a hospital?

Successful digital transformation in hospitals requires several critical elements that are essential to achieve the intended goals. Here are some important factors for success:

a. Acknowledgement of the Need for Change: Hospital staff needs to understand why digital transformation is necessary and how it can improve their daily work. Effective communication and training are key to achieving this understanding.

b. Leadership Culture: A supportive leadership culture that fosters change management is essential to drive and manage the transformation process effectively. Hospital leaders must inspire and motivate staff to embrace change and work collaboratively to achieve the organisation's goals.

c. Business Process Management (BPM): Hospitals must adopt process views and professional set-up of BPM to ensure that quality processes are measured, monitored and improved regularly. This helps to optimise workflows, enhance operational efficiency and ensure patient safety.

d. Process Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): Measuring success with process KPIs is vital in digital transformation to determine if the process improvements are successful or not. It helps to track the progress of the transformation and identify areas that need further improvements.

"Let's break down the barriers and be open to learning from others. By doing so, we can create innovative solutions that will transform healthcare and improve the lives of patients."

e. A Culture that Allows Mistakes: Digital transformation requires experimenting with new technologies and approaches, which may lead to mistakes. A culture that tolerates mistakes and encourages continuous learning and improvement is critical in fostering innovation and transformation.

f. Professional Project Management Methods: Hospitals must adopt professional project management methods such as agile and waterfall to ensure that the digital transformation project will solve the issues identified. Today, clinics are geared towards treating as many patients as possible with high-quality care, continuously optimising and modernising treatment methods. To be successful in a digital transformation, it is necessary to also focus on projects that improve processes and patient experience along the patient pathway.

g. Time to Think Differently: Hospitals must take the time to think differently and understand how much can be achieved e.g. by leveraging digital channels. This means exploring new ideas, approaches and technologies that can improve patient outcomes, reduce costs and enhance the overall quality of healthcare services.

4. Can you give us a brief background about your roles in the organisations you have worked for? How does the experience augment your role and responsibility at your current organisation?

In the past, I have worked in the telecommunications industry, where I dealt with various service channels and retail and later as a CTO in an international travel company. I often held roles in IT. Apart from being passionate about technology solutions, it has always been important for me to achieve something good for the business and, above all, for the people in the company. I always say that I speak "business" and "IT," and therefore, I have been dealing with transformation topics for the last 15-20 years.

While I often hear that when filling executive roles, people with a lot of experience in the respective industry are sought, the opposite was true for me, and it made me successful. Whenever I had the chance to switch to a new area or dive into a new industry, my external perspective and positive experiences from my previous jobs helped me implement disruptive and efficient solutions.

Even in my current role, where I am responsible for shaping the digital transformation of the hospital, focusing on the patient journey, processes and technology, my wealth of experience from other industries is tremendously helpful.

5. As an ending note, what is your advice for other senior leaders and CXOs working in the healthcare industry space?

I find it remarkable how often hospitals compare themselves to each other and strive to learn from one another. But what would be even better is if the healthcare industry opened up and in addition learned from those who have already successfully mastered similar things in other industries. It would be beneficial to bring people from other industries into healthcare as they may bring in different views and fresh ideas.

I would advise all CXOs to assemble diverse teams that complement each other due to their various experiences and skills. It will be essential to inspire employees in their organisations to do things differently and think outside the box.

Let's break down the barriers and be open to learning from others. By doing so, we can create innovative solutions that will transform healthcare and improve the lives of patients.