A sound cloud strategy offers significant value to healthcare organizations. Take the first step with a cloud workshop.
Transform Healthcare with the Right Cloud Strategy
In a recent survey of healthcare CIOs, the majority do not have a strategy for moving their data centers to the cloud. In fact, about 55 percent still manage their primary electronic health record (EHR) system on premises.
What’s more, 69 percent of executives said they don’t have a data migration strategy in place—even though new tools and regulatory changes make the cloud a safe option for storing sensitive protected health information (PHI).
Why? Almost 40 percent said that they don’t see a clear business value in migrating to the cloud, and 50 percent cited security concerns about a cloud migration.
Yet, with a thoughtful strategy, the cloud offers significant value to healthcare organizations.
Overcoming challenges with the cloud for healthcare organizations
Yet there are challenges to overcome. Key among them:
- Security and privacy issues – An alarming number of security breaches and, with them, stricter enforcement of HIPAA regulations are keeping some executives from considering cloud options. A recent post talked about how the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center recently shelled out $4,348,000 in civil penalties for HIPAA violations involving the loss and theft of three mobile devices.
OUR VIEW: Regardless of where your infrastructure is located—whether on-premises, off-premises, or a hybrid—data security and patient privacy will always need to be addressed. Security experts who stay ahead of the latest threats and the technology can apply a sound security framework, while your healthcare IT teams can focus on healthcare.
- Resource issues – By necessity, healthcare IT teams are often consumed with keeping life-critical systems—such as EHR systems, picture archiving and communications systems (PACS), clinical applications, and more as well as business applications—operating. They often do not have time to effectively develop a cloud strategy or plan for a successful data migration.
OUR VIEW: You don’t have to do this alone. Moving to the cloud allows you to take advantage of additional resources to develop the right cloud strategy, ensure that data is successfully migrated and support healthcare in the cloud. And your healthcare IT teams should rightly focus on keeping clinical systems up and running to ensure accurate outcomes and patient satisfaction.
- Data governance issues – For data to be useful in improving the patient experience, studying population health, and reducing healthcare costs, it must have data integrity. And good data governance practices should be developed prior to a data migration. Because healthcare IT teams have their hands full just managing the day-to-day needs of their organizations, they often don’t have the time or lack the skills needed to ensure data integrity.
OUR VIEW: Again, good data governance should always be practiced whether your infrastructure is on-premises, off-premises or a hybrid infrastructure. In fact, the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) says:
“…what the data is, what it means, whether it is used in the correct manner in the correct place, how it is being collected, and whether it is healthy, are all business prerogatives. If the business does not care about the state of its data, then data governance initiatives will mimic the siloed state of its existing environment and fail.”
How Logicalis helps healthcare organizations with their cloud journey
Logicalis can help guide you through your cloud journey and determine your optimal cloud strategy, whether that is an on-premises private cloud, an off-premises public cloud or a combination of cloud delivery models.
We will consult with you through all layers of the organization and process—from an overall cloud strategy, through application rationalization, service management, automation and orchestration, security, data governance and infrastructure readiness. Our team of professional service delivery experts will help you implement your strategy and our managed services support team can help manage aspects of your cloud.
Cloud Workshop: Many clients leverage our Cloud Workshops as a first step to define or refine their cloud strategy. It provides you, as the leader of IT, a forum to openly discuss your IT strategy. We provide you with our point of view, then document a strategic roadmap and discuss a process to execute the strategy. At the end of the day, you’ll have a thoughtful, well-defined approach to the cloud that minimizes business risk and enables you to proceed with confidence.
Learn more about Logicalis’ Healthcare Solutions and our Hybrid Cloud Workshop and get started on a sensible cloud journey today.
Mike Riley is the Healthcare Solutions Practice Leader for Logicalis responsible for helping healthcare organizations align their business and technical needs to enhance both financial results and patient outcomes. Roger Finney is the Director of Solution Sales for Cloud, IoT, and Security responsible for working with clients to help them solve their most complex IT challenges.