Oct 17
2014
Health IT Leaders Not Fully Prepared to Leverage FutureCare Technologies to Optimize their EHR
MeriTalk, a public-private partnership focused on improving the outcomes of health and government IT, announces the results of its new study, “FutureCare: Cloud, Big Data, Mobile, and Social Optimize the EMR.” The report, sponsored by EMC Corporation, explores how FutureCare-enabling technologies — cloud, big data, mobile and social — are driving profound change and how deployment of these tools can help optimize electronic health records for improved patient care coordination.
The report purports to reveal that while many providers have implemented or plan to implement these technologies in the next two years, 96 percent of healthcare organizations say their infrastructure is not fully prepared for the evolution of their EHR today.
Health IT leaders have started to adopt FutureCare technologies. Two-thirds of healthcare providers run EHR applications in the cloud, with the majority currently using private cloud models (49 percent), followed by hybrid and public clouds (35 percent).
Healthcare providers are also using big data and analytics in conjunction with their EHR with 50 percent saying big data is helping them to reduce re-admissions and track and evaluate patient outcomes more effectively. Providers are also using big data to conduct cost/benefit analysis to reduce project risk (46 percent), manage clinical and IT staffing levels (38 percent) and prescribe preventive care (24 percent).
Mobile and social technologies are also starting to make an impact on healthcare providers — 57 percent of health IT leaders say mobile has become an important tool in viewing real-time patient information as caregivers work toward making more informed patient care decisions. Additional mobile use cases include clinical notifications (46 percent), ePrescribing (41 percent) and patient communication and reminders (38 percent).
Fifty-four percent of organizations also are using social in conjunction with their EHR to facilitate secure collaboration; 52 percent are communicating with patients and sending medication/follow up reminders; and 31 percent are collecting data from wearable technology.
Cloud, big data, mobile and social technologies impact business and clinical workflows by improving data access, enhancing patient care, and reducing costs. To reap these benefits, health IT leaders expect 2015 IT spending to increase for all four areas – cloud, big data, mobile and social. As a result of FutureCare technology investments, U.S. hospitals expect to save billions in annual IT spending. By 2016, healthcare providers anticipate:
- Big Data can help them save 21 percent of their annual IT budget, or $7.2B
- Cloud can help them save 20 percent of their annual IT budget, or $6.9B
- Mobile can help them save 16 percent of their annual IT budget, or $5.5B
- Social can help them save 11 percent of their annual IT budget, or $3.8B
To optimize the EHR and ensure the infrastructure can support further growth, health IT leaders say they will enhance security systems (47 percent), improve application performance (38 percent), invest in cloud solutions (31 percent), and modernize backup and recovery solutions (31 percent).
“It’s clear that cloud, big data, mobile and social technologies can positively impact patient care delivery, population health, and achieve improved levels of fiscal efficiency,” said David DeAngelis, healthcare general manager, EMC Corporation.
The MeriTalk study is based on an online survey of 151 hospital IT decision makers, conducted in August 2014.
Download the “FutureCare: Cloud, Big Data, Mobile, and Social Optimize the EMR” at: www.meritalk.com/futurecare.