Connecting With Better Solutions for Rural Hospital Data
Can rural hospitals thrive in today’s market? Not unlike corporate farming that has taken over the small family farm operation in rural America, hospitals are increasingly eyeing collaborative solutions, which can compromise their ability to remain independent. However, when it comes to dealing with rural hospital data, innovation is allowing these providers to retain their independence.
Critical access hospitals have their share of challenges on any given day, especially when it comes to budgetary issues and finding personnel with the credentials required, whether it’s in IT or in medicine. In Illinois, a group of critical access hospitals got together to find a way to take advantage of the Medicare pay-for-performance programs, which is something most rural providers can’t do on their own due to a lack of infrastructure and capital. But what about getting rural hospital data solutions that are just as good as the larger hospitals get – is that an option?
It’s no secret that rural hospitals are grappling with their electronic health records and the systems that keep them up and running. With 2,000 small town and rural hospitals out there, a solution is definitely required. Regardless of how rural a facility might be, doctors still need to share patient records with their patients and with other doctors, often in facilities far away. It might sound simple enough, but meeting new federal digital standards often comes with million-dollar infrastructure that simply isn’t in the budget for critical access hospitals.
Sometimes, the only reason a small hospital will join a larger system is due to IT issues – they want to have the same top-notch electronic services without having to install expensive hardware with high-dollar software implemented. Some rural providers see it as a point of pride to stay independent and they’re losing this pride due to rural hospital data issues.
Fortunately, cloud-based solutions are becoming available to the rural providers, giving them access to some of the best data archiving without all the cost associated with it. Using vendor neutral archiving solutions, rural hospital data can be stored and shared without issue. Furthermore, because the solution is cloud-based, there is no need to buy expensive hardware or software, and the IT staff has little to no extra work with these cloud-based solutions.
Liberating the facility from vendors and cutting costs at the same time, providers can get security and reliability with a cloud-based archiving solution. Business continuity and disaster recovery processes are all part of the plan for these cloud-based services, which use Level IV datacenters to ensure the data is always available.
OffSite Image Management, Inc., is a company that delivers rural hospital data solutions at an affordable price. Our solutions are based on VNA technology, giving providers and their patients better access to data when they want it and where they want it. Contact us today and find out how we can help you retain your independence while getting connected to top-notch services.