Hospital Purchased Services Spend: IT/Telecom/Telehealth
Purchased services are that part of your organization's spend that is contracted, purchased from, or outsourced to a third-party vendor rather than carried out by your hospital's in-house team. Purchased services encompass every department in your health system.
Healthcare in this country is becoming increasingly complex and costly. Purchased services can account for up to 40%-50% of your organization's non-labor spend, yet hiding in your invoices is the potential for significant savings, which can dramatically improve your hospital's margins.
What is IT, Telecom, and Telehealth?
IT, Telecom
As is the case in so many other industries, technology is transforming healthcare and now touches every department of the modern-day hospital, for example:
- Patient care is affected directly by Electronic Medical Records (EMRs).
- Digital communication between providers both within and outside a healthcare organization is becoming more common.
- The management and automation of the supply chain are more efficient, thanks to technology.
The increased use of technology has led to significant improvements in care and patient value, but it does not come without risks.
If the technology fails to function correctly, whether it involves the EMR within a health system or the phone/PA system within a hospital, the impact on patients can be potentially devastating.
This is why hospitals' efficiency, ease of use and reliability of technologies have become so crucial — and why outsourcing has become an effective solution to ensure all three requirements are met.
Telehealth
A broader term than telemedicine, which refers specifically to remote clinical services, telehealth encompasses clinical and non-clinical services. These include provider training, administrative meetings, and continuing medical education.
Telehealth is changing today's healthcare landscape, from online patient portals and virtual visits to remote monitoring, wearable devices, and personal health apps.
Outsourcing IT, Telecom and Telehealth
The possibilities may seem endless but integrating technology into your health system remains an ongoing challenge. The rate of change in IT is extremely fast.
The most obvious obstacles to overcome include:
- Training employees to use the technologies appropriately and proficiently before implementation and as they are introduced into your hospital. This process can be tedious and expensive.
- The need to negotiate pricing for new technologies. Benchmarking data and insights are limited for the latest technologies, making negotiating prices even more challenging.
IT, Telecom and Healthcare: Case Study
Hospitals increasingly use EMR software to document, record and store information related to a patient's care.
Most EMRs are built on an open platform and can provide immediate analysis and insights across inpatient, ambulatory, emergency and other high-acuity care settings.
These products provide services essential to care coordination and enable clinicians to easily input, receive and communicate data related to a patient's care on a single reliable and connected network.
Technological advancements in healthcare are being made every year.
Select a vendor who creates and updates their technology accordingly to optimize patient care.
IT, Telecom and Telehealth: What's included?
IT, telecom and telehealth include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Data collection.
- Data analysis.
- Online patient portals.
- Electronic health records.
- Electronic medical records. (eg. Cerner, Epic, AllScripts, Soarian)
- Translation services.
- Visual telehealth for sign language.
- Remote monitoring.
- Personal health apps/wearable devices.
- Data storage.
- Cloud services.
- Encryption.
- Secure email.
- Secure texting.
- Cybersecurity.
- Phone and internet service providers.
To learn more about using hospital purchased services as a leading strategy for cost reduction in healthcare, click here.
