by
Sean Ruck, Contributing Editor | March 06, 2014
From the March 2014 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine
Clinical functionality is still determined by departments, but how it works with the infrastructure should be the responsibility of the IT department — or at least they should have a say in guiding the decision if they’re up to the task. “They have to ask themselves, ‘Am I the right one? Do I deserve to make this decision?’” says Gray.
What’s the future going to look like?
Once it’s determined who’s in charge, the next question requires some predicting. In this case, history helps tell the tale. Facilities with a good sense of where they’ve been will be able to better-determine where they’re going and to then plan accordingly. Decisions about purchases can be dictated by the anticipated needs of the future. For instance, a small private practice or group that has only grown a few percentage points over the past decade is unlikely to have double-digit growth in the next five years, so they’re unlikely to need high-end informatics systems to quickly pull from thousands of exam files. Money can be saved by estimating the needs and avoiding systems that are more robust than needed. The initial purchase of a system is typically the best time to get everything you believe you’ll need. However, it’s worth discussing with your software and hardware providers to determine the difference in cost between buying what you believe you’ll need, or paying for upgrades in the future.
Do we go to the cloud?
The answer to the question of whether or not you’ll be going to the cloud should at least, in part, be answered by estimating future needs. Cloud solutions are becoming more commonplace and intuitive interface is helping to make them more user-friendly.
“Over the course of the last 10 years, the financial situation has been such that facilities can’t afford to make stupid mistakes in infrastructure,” says Gray. “The obvious solution is put the decision into the hands of IT, but if your organization doesn’t have a strong IT team, you’re a prime candidate for cloud-based solutions.”
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