We’re seeing more and more opportunities for remote work throughout all of healthcare. Everyone’s seen a ton of it happening in the medical coding world. There are few if any large healthcare organizations that don’t have some sort of remote coding workforce. In the healthcare IT world we see remote work happening all the time in the world of EHR and health IT consultants.
This should come as no surprise. Technology is making place and location not matter nearly as much as it did. You can literally remotely control computers, you can see someone for free on video with a few clicks of a mouse, and the number of ways to manage and coordinate a remote workforce have grown dramatically. We’re definitely seeing this in the number of remote jobs posted on Healthcare IT Central.
We can all be sure that this trend line will continue. There are a number of reasons this is happening in healthcare. In many areas of healthcare they literally can’t get qualified people to work at their organization. Sometimes the healthcare facility is in an undesirable locale. Other times there’s a lot of competition for those skills in a specific locale and so you have to look outside your locale for that talent. However, the most compelling reason I see remote work happening is that organizations want to retain their existing workforce. Losing someone with organizational intelligence can provide a massive hit to any organization. Having them work remotely is a great option.
As someone who has worked with people remotely for the last 5 years, I’ve found a few keys to a successful remote workforce. First, ensure that the people you have working remotely are highly skilled at their specific area of expertise. Second, create a system of accountability and tracking which can be referenced as you evaluate their work. This provides them the opportunity to show they’re doing great work and you the opportunity to recognize the good work they’re doing. Third, ensure you’ve created quality, consistent communication challenges.
Remote work is becoming a larger reality in healthcare. If you do it wrong, you should be afraid of remote work. However, if you put the right structure in place, you should be excited by the opportunities that remote work provides.
