Since the passing of the healthcare reform bill in March, policy makers, health care providers and even patients have begun to take a keen interest in health care IT.
That shouldn’t come as a surprise since health care IT is now touted as a way to achieve that most elusive of goals: improving health care outcomes by equipping health care providers and patients with more information — all while holding the line on costs.
We have all become accustomed to having answers and resources at our fingertips — be it through an online search, website visit, email, phone call, or chat forum. Healthcare providers and patients are right to ask why they can expect this level of anytime and anywhere access to information in nearly all aspects of their lives, bar one: health care.
But promising new technologies — like cloud computing — can indeed boost operational efficiency and make critical healthcare information readily available to health care providers and patients.
As one of the nation’s largest providers of health-related services, government (whether at the federal, state or local level) stands to benefit the most from such advances in health care IT. In fact, cloud computing is a particularly good fit for healthcare organizations because:
- It’s economical –- Cloud computing offers a pay-as-you-go approach to IT, requiring a relatively low initial investment to get started. It can be easily adapted to existing IT systems and is scalable for savings with additional users.
- It’s flexible –- IT departments within health-related organizations that are anticipating fluctuations in user load don’t have to scramble to secure additional hardware and software. With cloud computing, capacity can be added and subtracted as network load dictates, and offers the added advantage of only paying for actual resource usage.
- It allows for rapid implementation –- Cloud computing can eliminate the need to undergo lengthy procurement and certification processes. Plus, with a near-limitless selection of services, tools, and features, it can facilitate rapid project implementations.
Healthcare IT will continue to evolve, and cloud computing will play a significant role. We see the next 12-18 months as a particularly exciting period as agencies look to increase engagement with citizens and move towards greater transparency. Let me know what you think.
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