Electronic meeting software for healthcare boards

In the field of healthcare, clinical governance is the primary priority to maintain the health and wellness of the patients. Advancements in medicines and practices are developed to support the goal of clinical governance. Similarly, healthcare boards also work towards achieving better healthcare board governance. This means making workflows more efficient to sustain the business while complying with regulations.

While other industries have started and now enjoy the benefits of the digital era, how can healthcare boards persist in the challenges of adopting digital solutions to their meetings and workflows?

The Need of Health Services to Digitalize Workflows

Boards in the healthcare sector, including hospital boards and boards heading health services, must embody their role of making data-driven decisions and upholding policies to the organization. However, fulfilling these roles and responsibilities needs better workflows that are efficient. Here are some challenges that hospital boards experience that digitalized workflows can resolve.

Shifting from Manual to Digital

Medical or healthcare boards consist of 10 or more directors that are responsible for registering health professionals and students, developing codes and standards for the medical profession and medical courses, and many more. These legislative and decision-making functions have been conducted manually — filing of paperwork, preparing for physical board meetings, manual approvals of accreditations — making processes paper-based and time-consuming. Imagine the number of papers that health boards use with all the documents and meeting packs.

While the traditional way of health board processes may still be the norm for most organizations and associations, this may not be the best way to venture through the digital era. Healthcare boards must be able to transition and adapt to today’s advancements. Some boards may feel hesitant as they are already accustomed to the traditional or manual processes. Digital tools or solutions can help in gradually but effectively shifting to more automated workflows for health boards.

The Need for a Secure Repository

Directors, secretaries, and administrators of healthcare boards go through documents for almost all their duties — preparing board packs, approving board resolutions, developing regulations, reviewing meeting minutes. Documents in hard copies filed in cabinets may not be the best way to store and retrieve information in the digital age where enhanced tools are readily available. On the other hand, online drives may seem convenient for their purpose of keeping the files digitally but one problem it could incur is the lack of security.

For boards in the healthcare sector, it is most important that documents are secured against cyber threats such as data breaches and ransomware attacks. In fact, attackers are now prominently targeting Australian health services providers, one of which is Eastern Health, a recent victim of a data breach. Health boards store and manage medical policies and regulations as well as professional and personal records of medical practitioners — information that interests cybercriminals. Keeping important files and documents in a secure digital repository can lessen the risks of cyber-attacks while having everything in a single platform.

Time-Consuming Process in Preparing Board Packs

One of the most cumbersome tasks in board workflows is preparing board meeting packs. This involves compiling all the relevant documents in a single file, mass printing the board pack, then sending them across to the board members for review. Any last-minute changes will repeat the whole process. This pre-meeting workflow does not drive collaboration and productivity, especially for an expeditious industry like healthcare.

Manual processes in board pack preparation will only cost more time that could better be allocated for other duties. Moreover, such processes are error-prone as the board pack has to go through various channels. An online meeting platform can streamline the whole pre-meeting process, allowing for smarter collaboration, systematic mechanisms, and paperless workflows.

How can a board portal address the challenges of the healthcare boards?

Cost-Efficient Processes

Digitalizing the health boards with a board portal solution can create seamless processes across board workflows, from pre-board meetings in preparing board packs to follow up approvals and action items after the meetings. Such a platform also addresses the problems with manual processes such as paper waste and laborious tasks.

Using electronic meeting software for health boards allows for paperless and efficient workflows as it streamlines the meeting processes from start to end. This includes attaching documents in a board pack, reviewing, and signing the documents without wasting a single sheet of paper and unnecessary time for printing and dispatching. Furthermore, a board portal can help further sustainable initiatives of Australian health boards.

Everything in One Place

Health boards manage different types of meetings and documents from all their roles and responsibilities. Utilizing electronic meeting software allows better management of board files by keeping everything in just a single space. With its capabilities to securely store documents, board secretaries and administrators will not have difficulty locating files for meetings and resolutions.

Apart from having a repository for all the documents that health boards govern, a one-stop solution empowers the collaboration of health board members by bringing together all the board workflows. Administrators and secretaries can now work together in developing effective board packs before meetings, take meeting minutes during meetings, and track action items post-meetings — all in just one place. Collaboration in a single space for health boards generates productivity and efficiency.

Better Healthcare Board Governance

In creating a digital workplace for healthcare boards and organizations, solutions must not just uphold automation in processes but also empower better healthcare board governance. Board management software serves as a digital solution that seamlessly transitions boards to virtual meetings and digital processes while upholding better decision-making even through remote collaboration.

Moreover, digital meeting solutions centralize documents and activities of boards — being an all-in-one platform — thus empowering transparency, accountability, and security for directors. With features such as activity tracking and permission-based control on documents, a board portal ensures that decisions are tracked and people responsible for the actions are accountable.

Digitizing Healthcare Boards with an Electronic Meeting Software

Transforming the healthcare board into a digital leadership body can tackle the issues they are currently facing. An electronic meeting software provides features that will benefit its users — the health board, secretaries, and administrators.

Advanced Security Features

With the confidentiality of information being managed by health boards, a digital board solution, such as Convene, can ensure the security of the documents and meetings. Security features embedded within the platform, like user authentication, permission-based access controls, and device security protect the data from breaches and other cyberattacks.

Sheffield Children’s NHS Foundation Trust, one of Convene’s clients, has been benefiting from the platform with access controls for the secretaries. This gives them user-level access to create accounts, manage meetings, and access documents.

Faster Agenda Creation

A digital secretariat tool makes it easier for meeting administrators to build agendas for health board meetings. The Agenda Builder feature allows for a simple yet efficient way of developing board packs — easy attachment of documents, scheduling meetings, assigning roles, and publishing the agenda. Additionally, it also eliminates the tedious process of manually revising the board packs. With just a few clicks, newer versions of the agenda pack can be uploaded and distributed to the directors.

Better Decision-Making Workflow

As the primary role of health board members, developing and establishing decisions and policies should have a process that is secure, collaborative, and transparent. A board meeting solution offers Resolutions and Review Rooms that help in streamlining the approval process of documents before and after meetings. The features allow for a secure and accountable space for directors to comment and discuss documents.

Boort District Health Service has been using Convene’s Resolutions for approving policies and procedures before meetings. Apart from being able to collaborate to discuss the documents, the feature also gives a transparent report on the actions that were made to the document as well as the directors who have viewed and voted on the resolution.

Read also the experience of Metro North Hospital and Health Service on using Convene as their one-stop platform for board meetings.

Secure Document Repository

Going paperless in healthcare boards requires file-sharing software that has high-level security. The Document Library in a board management software securely stores and manages health board documents with its role-based access controls for users. Having a secure repository for documents enables productive virtual meetings among board members — accessing documents without leaving meetings. In addition, Convene also automatically notifies board directors of the latest version of documents.

Given the fast-paced digital transformation of various industries in Australia, the healthcare sector now has to take on the challenge of adapting to the technology of today. A digital meeting solution, such as Convene, can help in seamlessly transitioning health boards to digitalize the tools and processes. Find out more about how board management software can empower better healthcare board governance for health organizations.