Why Healthcare should embrace Outsourcing

Thanks to modern technologies, lots of incoming and outgoing data, and plenty of newer, optimized management systems the healthcare industry is seeing considerable growth in regards to IT and related services.

In fact, many organizations in the industry are considering implementing their own, on-site IT services—if they haven’t already. When you look at the sheer demand and scope of the systems they require it makes sense to have a locally placed, and highly capable IT network available.

But a local system or network isn’t the only solution. IT services can actually be outsourced, or remotely connected to your organization. This places the burden of maintaining the system and hardware in the hands of a third-party.

According to a recent poll conducted by Black Book—which involved 1,600 hospital executives—34% expect to increase their current levels of IT outsourcing over the next few years. 58% have plans to retain their existing outsourcing setup through 2019.

While those numbers are alarming, the more pertinent result is that 81% of all executives polled have said their outsourced IT operations are already providing a return on investment. This is especially true of smaller healthcare organizations that just don’t have the resources to maintain the necessary systems onsite.

It’s no secret that healthcare environments and properties have so much more to worry about, not even just in terms of regulatory compliance and operation. They don’t need to be adding the burdens and responsibility of maintaining an on-site and reliable IT service. And that’s exactly why outsourcing opportunities exist, and why the greater healthcare industry should be embracing these services.

Markets and Markets reports that the global market size of IT outsourcing in healthcare will be worth $50.4 billion by the end of 2018.

Outsourced IT Is More Secure

While not always true, you can bet that an outsourced system or network is much more secure than anything you’d maintain in-house. The reason for this is actually quite simple. You don’t have the resources, capital, and manpower to maintain the required system and keep it running optimally. A third-party provider, however, that specializes in online services and cloud computing will also be incredibly focused on protecting their system and any customer data. Not to mention they do have the resources, skills, manpower, and tools to make security a priority.

A McAfee report released in the second quarter of 2017, revealed that the healthcare sector is the largest impacted by modern cybersecurity attacks, and has become an incredibly common target. Healthcare alone has seen a 67% increase in malware infections.

Outsourcing is the better and more viable solution than running a system in-house, because you’re hiring a provider who knows what they are doing, and will more capably divert attacks, and protect any related data.

Managed Services Are Scalable

As a healthcare organization or property grows, naturally, so do the demands on any related systems they use including IT services. This requires a current IT setup to be scaled appropriately to meet the higher demands and faster work environment.

Managed and remote services are already scalable, simply because service providers are offering services to a variety of organizations and groups, all of varying sizes and demand structures. Chances are, outsourcing providers already have the resources available to scale up, or down as necessary. You don’t have to worry about changing or evolving anything, in regards to your local systems. It’s all handled remotely at the source.

It also means if your demand fluctuates, the system can be scaled appropriately to meet peak demand periods and scale back down to eliminate wasted resources.

By Nature, Outsourced Healthcare Systems Are More Reliable

In regards to security, scalability, reliability, and regular operation, outsourced setups are always the better option. They tend to be much more reliable, simply because the provider in question is focused on maintaining uptime and keeping systems optimally working. As a business, healthcare included, that’s not your first priority usually. When you have limited resources you have to adjust and balance where they are spent, which means that in a majority of case the IT services equipment, hardware, network and systems you have on-site may suffer.

Luckily, when this source of power is moved off-property—read outsourced—there’s just more support and resources dedicated to its operation. This is increasingly important in the world of healthcare, considering most business are not your standard 8 to 5 operations. Emergency hospitals must be operational at all times of the day and night. That also facilitates around the clock IT staffing, which outsourcing companies are more suited to provide.

That’s not to say outsourced IT services never experience failures and never have downtime, they can and will. But when compared to the cost, capability, and resources necessary to run an on-site platform, the benefits are vast.

Image by Kratum IQ 

Arrange a Conversation