Many healthcare systems are still trying to run their business without the use of the digitized world. Relying on paper trails in today’s world is dangerous. Yes, it will keep hackers away from patient data, but it is more susceptible to natural disasters, misplaced documents, and lost paperwork that got left somewhere other than in the office. Those companies that have partially digitized are fragmented and cannot be simply accessed across systems, platforms and locations.

The American Medical Association estimates that over $300 billion is wasted through failures of care delivery and outmoded treatments that don’t benefit patients. The United States National Academy of Sciences estimated in 2005 that “between $.30 and $.40 of every dollar spent on healthcare is spent on the costs of poor quality. According to Stefan Biesdorf, “No longer limited to helping organizations do a certain task better or more efficiently, digital technology has the potential to affect every aspect of business and private life, enabling smarter choices, allowing people to spend more time on tasks they deem valuable, and often fundamentally transforming the way value is created.” Contact a cloud service provider to get more information.

Digitizing Helps…

Many face to face patient-doctor meetings are not necessary, as they could be solved from home by letting doctors access patient data and interact with them remotely. The American Medical Association showed that roughly 1 billion doctor visits occur each year in the United States, and of those, 70 percent are unnecessary and could be avoided by consulting with a physician by phone, email or text. Digitized healthcare helps avoid the threat of ever-present access to private health data, so we need to:

• Make devices and sensors that record health data widely available.
• Develop systems that store and analyze data, to increase our understanding of measuring physician performance
• Prescribe personalized treatment and ensure compliance with therapy
• Protect health data and privacy of patients to avoid misuse of information.

Cloud service providers can help ensure that access to care is available from home, not just the clinic.

What Exactly is Digital?

Digital is the technologies and applications that offer efficient automation, better decision making, and a stronger connectivity with customers. According to Steve Kelly, “These technologies, together with business process redesign, make possible a new way of working that can fundamentally transform a payor organization.” The world of digital promotes new ways of promoting effectively with providers. In essence, digital gives:

• Stronger Connectivity
• Greater Efficiency and Automation
• Better Decision Making
• More Advanced Innovation

By combining these four levers, digital can achieve a significant impact of in-house operations.

Beyond modifying existing job descriptions, entirely new roles and responsibilities will emerge during the next five years as a result of the continuing evolution of digital tools and information. This technology is the future. Clinics and hospitals that do not get on board will find themselves behind-the-times. Upcoming digital transparency tools that inform consumers about variations in provider pricing could encourage them to seek out lower-cost providers.