Three Reasons Cloud Adoption Is a Priority for Healthcare

In the early days of cloud adoption, healthcare providers considered there to be too many unanswered questions about security. While some organizations avoided the cloud, early adopters implemented storage or processing solutions that demonstrated the potential for bigger cloud benefits: real-time data processing, information availability across multiple locations, and business continuity.

For healthcare providers to gain the full range of disruptive advantages available through cloud solutions, they would need to more broadly adopt cloud technology for not only individual applications, but also enterprise-wide applications. Widespread cloud investments that include integrated systems and infrastructure provide a host of benefits:

• Efficient scalability
• Improved patient outcomes
• Better user experiences through artificial intelligence
• Use of data to improve compliance
• Faster deployment of new applications or systems

There are three main areas that are changing, allowing healthcare to expand cloud investment to gain those types of advantages for improving processes, and ultimately, patient outcomes:

Compliance and Privacy: Many of the early concerns about security were addressed as cloud providers began putting best practices into place; the same was true for privacy issues and compliance regulations. Now, regulatory needs are driving the push for more digital solutions because they provide enhanced security when compared to on-site systems.

Improved Patient Outcomes: The health of the patient is central for every organization, and cloud technology offers clear improvements:

• Real-time access to patient records so the patient receives comprehensive and collaborative care from all providers.
• Opportunities for telehealth through cloud-based networking solutions that offer high-quality, low-cost connectivity.
• Data collection, analysis, and reporting from smart devices that do everything from monitoring a patient’s heart rate or blood sugar levels to measuring how much activity a recently-released patient is enjoying following a surgery.

Changing Attitudes: One key factor accelerating the rate of cloud adoption by healthcare providers is simply a comfort level that’s increasing for both patients and the organizations that provide them with care. People are becoming more accustomed to having personal smart devices and the idea that data powers better solutions. What has become normal and expected in their private lives is also expanding to the medical sphere, and patients are no longer surprised to find that their doctor is inputting their diagnosis into a laptop as they are discussing the situation with them.

Healthcare providers are finding that cloud solutions allow them to provide better care while working within budgets that may otherwise limit improvements. From networking solutions that provide cheaper bandwidth options to applications that no longer require costly in-house updates, cloud technology is helping drive down costs while improving services.

You may be a healthcare provider that has implemented a few cloud storage solutions, but you want to know more about what cloud technology could do for your organization in terms of disruptive change. Contact us at One Connect to learn more about the benefits you could experience in terms of not only cost reduction and productivity, but most importantly, in patient care.