Today’s patients require access to their health records and necessitate communication with their providers at all times. In the age of electronic health records, telehealth, online patient scheduling and other patient-first tools, the healthcare industry has been forced to store, protect and manage more data than ever before.
Taken together, healthcare organizations need to ensure they are able to handle the ever-increasing scope of data their patients generate every day. Not only does that enable them to meet patient expectations and improve the patient experience, but it also allows them to deliver better, vital healthcare outcomes for every stakeholder in the system.
The fact is, the healthcare system isn’t as efficient as it could be.
One of the movements that is hoping to bring more efficiency to the healthcare industry is the concept of value-based care, a new compensation model that incentivizes providers based on the quality of care they deliver to their patients.
If we are to realize the full promise of value-based care, data will have to play an integral role in the process. In order for providers to deliver the highest-quality care possible, they will need to use the abundance of data to figure out the best way forward, and utilize digitized-medical resources efficiently.
With the right data on hand, providers can diagnose illnesses more precisely, use predictive analytics and data analysis to prevent diseases and leverage aggregate data to deliver care that’s personalized on a patient-by-patient basis, among other patient-centric applications.
Beyond this transition to value-based care, the integration of technology into healthcare has also contributed to the explosion of data. Electronic health records, online portals, telemedicine, wearable technology and wireless communication platforms, just to name a few, all produce a ton of data every day. This data needs to subsequently be stored, tracked and accessed by both medical practitioners and patients as well.
When healthcare organizations lack an effective modular data center design strategy, patient outcomes suffer. When the data center isn’t prepared to handle the new, higher data volume, or even help streamline medical data-based storage and processing, quality of care decreases. Problems can occur with accessing electronic health records, missed appointments due to scheduling errors (which could lead to unchecked health problems) and trouble meeting with doctors via telemedicine when it may be an urgent matter. Even just the time it takes to access critical medical information costs the facility and patients valuable time for consultations and care, which can result in medical practices seeing less patients per shift, negatively impacting both the quantity and quality of care.
In each instance, patients lose confidence in the healthcare provider, which increases the chances they’ll look elsewhere for care the next time.
Without quick and reliable access to data, it becomes that much harder for providers to make the best decisions. Similarly, biotech and life sciences companies can’t move groundbreaking research forward as fast as they need to, when they lack a robust data center footprint.
What’s more, not only are they unable to meet the expectations of every patient who walks through their doors, but they may also expose themselves to data breaches. Because HIPAA fines can cost up to $50,000 per violation—and up to $1.5 million annually—healthcare organizations simply can’t afford to take data center security for granted.
The good news is that by taking a proactive approach to modular data center design, your healthcare organization can avoid all of these pitfalls and increase the chances you deliver the highest quality of care possible, every time.
For example, by investing in a turnkey data center solution, you get a plug-and-play data center that enables you to manage facilities cost-effectively, while enhancing the quality of care you offer every patient who walks through your doors.
Because the healthcare industry is so regulated—and all healthcare data needs to be kept in highly secure environments—healthcare organizations would be wise to invest in on-premises computing infrastructure. As a result, they get access to faster computing and processing speeds that empower electronic health record accessibility, medical imaging, communication, clinical workflows and more, while having the flexibility and the autonomy to add specific components, processing power or storage to meet future needs.
Add it all up, and healthcare organizations that are interested in achieving the highest quality of care levels possible need to invest in on-premises data center solutions. Otherwise, they simply will not be able to move as quickly as the competitors that manage their own data centers on site, deliver vital care that patients need, and optimize their medical protocols to treat more patients.
At this point, you might be thinking that on-premises data centers sound great, but you don’t know where to begin. Check out our free e-book, The Complete Guide to Modular Data Center Solutions, to learn more about the easiest way to build bespoke data center solutions for organizations in healthcare.