Outsourcing Healthcare Information Technology:
Do the Benefits Outweigh the Risks? The IT department in a healthcare facility has several very important responsibilities in managing the clinical as well as administrative data involved in the facility’s daily function. Because the facility may be attempting to cut costs and the need for a competent, secure, and reliable IT department is critical to successful patient treatment, outsourcing the IT department is beginning to become more common in healthcare organizations. Outsourcing is effective in many healthcare environments; however, it can prove disastrous in some healthcare settings. It is a serious decision to outsource IT departments, so it is very important to consider the various benefits …show more content…
Wager, F.W. Lee, J.P. Glaser, 2013). Operations and technical support is responsible for the servers, operating systems, database managements systems, and workstations (K.A. Wager, F.W. Lee, J.P. Glaser, 2013). This department also upgrades and installs new technology, as well as provides system back up (K.A. Wager, F.W. Lee, J.P. Glaser, 2013). Applications management manages all that is required to acquire new application systems, implementing the new systems, and troubleshooting when problems arise (K.A. Wager, F.W. Lee, J.P. Glaser, 2013). Specialized groups are needed to tailor IT needs to their specific organization and its many facets. Telecommunications, managing medical records, and marketing is included in specialized groups (K.A. Wager, F.W. Lee, J.P. Glaser, 2013). IT administration provides management and human resource support to the IT department (K.A. Wager, F.W. Lee, J.P. Glaser, …show more content…
It is safe to assume that these costs will continue to rise as new technologies are established. Information Week Healthcare suggests that the “mandate is to improve quality, transparency, and population health while better managing healthcare inflation (Heck, 2014). The concern is that healthcare organizations have spent a great deal of money replacing hardcopy medical record with electronic medical records and the constant updates that accompany the EMRs, but have not spent the time or money necessary to improve “workflow and measuring the value associated with these investments (Heck,
Do the Benefits Outweigh the Risks? The IT department in a healthcare facility has several very important responsibilities in managing the clinical as well as administrative data involved in the facility’s daily function. Because the facility may be attempting to cut costs and the need for a competent, secure, and reliable IT department is critical to successful patient treatment, outsourcing the IT department is beginning to become more common in healthcare organizations. Outsourcing is effective in many healthcare environments; however, it can prove disastrous in some healthcare settings. It is a serious decision to outsource IT departments, so it is very important to consider the various benefits …show more content…
Wager, F.W. Lee, J.P. Glaser, 2013). Operations and technical support is responsible for the servers, operating systems, database managements systems, and workstations (K.A. Wager, F.W. Lee, J.P. Glaser, 2013). This department also upgrades and installs new technology, as well as provides system back up (K.A. Wager, F.W. Lee, J.P. Glaser, 2013). Applications management manages all that is required to acquire new application systems, implementing the new systems, and troubleshooting when problems arise (K.A. Wager, F.W. Lee, J.P. Glaser, 2013). Specialized groups are needed to tailor IT needs to their specific organization and its many facets. Telecommunications, managing medical records, and marketing is included in specialized groups (K.A. Wager, F.W. Lee, J.P. Glaser, 2013). IT administration provides management and human resource support to the IT department (K.A. Wager, F.W. Lee, J.P. Glaser, …show more content…
It is safe to assume that these costs will continue to rise as new technologies are established. Information Week Healthcare suggests that the “mandate is to improve quality, transparency, and population health while better managing healthcare inflation (Heck, 2014). The concern is that healthcare organizations have spent a great deal of money replacing hardcopy medical record with electronic medical records and the constant updates that accompany the EMRs, but have not spent the time or money necessary to improve “workflow and measuring the value associated with these investments (Heck,