Have you ever wondered how the healthcare industry chooses its software and hardware purchases? The healthcare industry is one of the largest growing industries in the world. Along with it growing, the technology also has to evolve to keep up with all of the advancements. Cloud computing has become the best option for healthcare organizations as it is ever-growing. Here are three ways that cloud computing is transforming the healthcare industry.
Cost
This is the most significant factor as healthcare companies will spend up to 75% of their IT budgets maintaining internal systems. Cost also factors into deciding where you want to host your applications and data. Even though you cannot compare the actual dollars saved, there are considerable differences in the cost models. This helps to cut the high hardware costs, capital expenditures, and the costs to maintain the hardware. Having the ability to divert funds into other areas of operations that would have been used to create a robust IT infrastructure is a really good thing. Cloud computing helps to cut the high costs of hardware and capital expenditures. Using the cloud, a company will pay a subscription service, which is considered an operating expense based on their scale. Organizations can also divert funds into their operational areas that were previously used to create a robust IT infrastructure.
Security and Reliability
If done properly, these are two of the cloud’s strongest capabilities that it has to offer a healthcare organization. One of the biggest reasons that the cloud’s security is essential is the need to protect private healthcare information. Reliability plays a role in being able to hold all the data that is stored in the cloud. If something were to happen to a computer where all the information is originally housed, as long as it was backed up to the cloud, there would be no data loss. This is extremely important as there are laws regarding the storage of medical records for a certain amount of time.
Flexibility and Scalability
Cloud services always help to address fluctuating demands when needs arise. It is so easy to scale up the organization’s capacity at just the press of a button. If there is ever a need to scale down, the cloud allows you to do so within the cloud model. The cloud has a ton to offer, and it helps to enable organizations to continually add programs, locations, and staff. The healthcare field is in an environment that is ever-changing. With this ever-growing environment, there will always be regulatory enhancements, financing reform, competition, or clinical quality initiatives, which creates external pressures. In a self-hosted model, companies are forced into trying to keep up with hardware purchases and maintenance to support these changes.
Cloud computing is very important to the growth of the healthcare industry. While saving money on the IT side, they can spend more money to improve the quality of health with updated medical equipment and hire more staff to run more efficiently.
