| The healthcare industry is generally behind other | | | | investment in single-vendor solutions often spend years |
| organizations in terms of IT usage, but there is a ton of | | | | trying to tie all the disparate applications from internal |
| pressure now from health plans, consumers, and the | | | | sources or their secondary vendors. |
| government; increasingly strict reporting and | | | | Data integration platforms that were once only |
| compliance requirements; and an overall healthcare | | | | affordable for the larger healthcare providers are now |
| industry realization that IT can improve patient care | | | | being deployed at smaller hospitals. Faced with the |
| and safety. So while IT usage in hospitals, physician | | | | challenge of data integration, a customized |
| practices and healthcare provider organizations lags | | | | point-to-point interface is simply not a viable solution. So |
| behind other industries, its adoption and growth rates | | | | how does a healthcare provider go about selecting a |
| are among the highest in the United States. | | | | data integration platform? |
| Many hospitals continue to spend IT budgets on | | | | There are several factors that need to be considered |
| mission-critical administrative and financial applications, | | | | when selecting a vendor, the obvious being a strong |
| much of the increase in IT spend is now focused on | | | | track record of success with deployments of similar |
| clinical information systems and other applications that | | | | size and scope as yours. But there are other |
| form the core of an electronic medical record, or EMR. | | | | considerations as well, including technology, |
| Building an accurate and useful EMR typically requires | | | | performance, support, financial viability. The technology |
| the need to gather data from numerous applications | | | | itself – or proposed solution – also needs to be |
| and sometimes from multiple vendors. Effective | | | | evaluated thoroughly for security protocols, operational |
| integration of this data is critical for success. | | | | efficiency, documentation, and total cost of ownership |
| In addition to the growing number of applications | | | | (TCO). |
| currently in use among healthcare providers, there also | | | | Healthcare providers are heading in the right direction |
| is the problem of the number of unique patient data | | | | by deploying an integration platform. Health data |
| interfaces currently in play. Hospitals use systems and | | | | integration will help create process efficiency across |
| applications acquired from multiple software vendors, | | | | departments and among vendors and staff. It will |
| and many physicians' offices operate separately from | | | | reduce clinical errors and improve the safety and |
| their affiliate hospitals, the integration of patient data | | | | health of patients. And these improvements will |
| across the many applications in use, therefore, | | | | ultimately save money for both hospitals and their |
| becomes paramount for true end-to-end process | | | | constituents. |
| integration. And those hospitals that make the large | | | | |