Electronic Health Reporter

Guest post by Dan Tully, executive vice president, Conduit System.

IT is not a sink hole. IT is not a cost center. IT is not a fad. This is especially true when it comes to healthcare. In fact, carefully calculated IT investments can produce a range of strategic and operational benefits for healthcare/hospital administrators, practice managers and more, which include enabling advanced technology and accelerating innovation.

How you ask?

IT Investment Affects the Bottom Line

Strategic investment into IT operations is a foundation for building revenue. To understand how, one must look no further than your average mid-sized healthcare operation and how process can be improved:

• Administration

Fluid output from nurses stations; simplified statistic, biometric and medication reporting; linking of disparate department systems

• Human Resources

Streamlining the hiring processes; simplified expense report and vacation request procedures; compliance with complicated regulatory measures

• Finance

Reliable monitoring of capital investments improved data and measurement capabilities; compliance with healthcare-related finance ruling

The up-front and hidden costs of downtime caused by unforeseen disaster can also be mitigated through proper investment in IT outsourcing. Organizations and practices operating on disk-to-disk backup are at a significant disadvantage compared to those employing more modern technology.

Implementing cloud-based solutions that combine local caches of files with full-time cloud backup boast advanced performance levels and functionality. It also allows for unlimited data growth, little to no network performance lags and true disaster recovery as the data can be pulled from the cloud and reconstituted anytime, anywhere.

Big Picture, Big Results

Average IT staffs are tasked with keeping the proverbial ship afloat on a daily basis. With an investment in managed IT services, on-site and high-level staff can focus on the above-mentioned projects that ultimately fuel growth and provide return on investment. If your operation needs to embark on a replacement/upgrade project that requires the complete attention of your IT staff, contract engineers and support teams can handle the daily minutiae. An added bonus? Relieving the burden can promote happiness, motivation and creativity among full-time employees.

Investment in IT Allows You to Focus on What You Do Best

Let’s face it – IT is a necessity.  It’s essential no matter what part of the healthcare industry you belong. Overall investment in IT operations and support allows top officials to focus on what they do best: manage operations and improve patient outcomes. There’s certainly nothing trendy about that.