Why Making the Move to the Healthcare Cloud is a Worthy Investment?

Healthcare providers generate large volumes of data from various sources, including electronic health records (mostly lab results, medications, and prescription notes), medical insurance claims and radiology images. There are two ways to store this data- on-premise and cloud-based. On-premise servers consume significant IT bandwidth for handling large data loads. Hence, adopting cloud solutions for healthcare is crucial to cut down costs of maintaining physical servers by shifting data to external servers.

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Although in-house data storage has been the norm for quite some time, healthcare companies are now investing in cloud services. According to a survey, the global healthcare solutions market is accelerating its adoption of cloud computing and is estimated to reach $64.7 billion by 2025.

In this article, we’ll explore the benefits of cloud healthcare IT solutions for reducing costs, streamlining healthcare operations, and improving the quality of patient care-making it a worthy investment.

COVID-19 and the Adoption of Cloud Healthcare IT Solutions

The pandemic accelerated digital transformation across all industries and organizations. Healthcare was no exception. The outpatient department moved to telehealth interactions. Online portals and telehealth applications became prime medium to schedule virtual visits and connect to doctors to receive medical care from the safety of our homes.

Cloud solutions for healthcare became instrumental in ensuring steady connectivity and online collaboration. With 33% of healthcare workers working remotely from October 2020 to April 2021 and the trend continuing, cloud-based systems and applications ensure employees have access to all the resources they need, whether working from the office or off-site.

The pandemic accelerated investments in the cloud for global enterprises. Data suggests that cloud expenses would comprise 14.2% of the global IT spending market in 2024, compared to 9.1% in the first quarter of 2020.

Significant Benefits of Investing in Cloud Solutions for Healthcare

Cloud adoption goes beyond its traditional definition of “repository of stored data in a cloud network.” Besides storing a mountain of data, cloud systems remove siloed data, optimize workflows, and facilitate easy access to healthcare records enabling healthcare professionals to gain insights, take actions, and collaborate effectively across a patient’s care journey. The top benefits of investing in cloud services are discussed in detail below:

#1 Improves Patient Care

Cloud healthcare IT solutions drive efficient patient care by acting as a single access point for all healthcare records. Cloud systems provide a virtual, centralized data space allowing multiple users to exchange information and access records seamlessly. With automated reminders and notifications, cloud healthcare operations enable simplified patient care and improve health outcomes through increased provider collaboration.

#2 Enhances Data Security

Medical data stored on the cloud systems are safe and secure. Physical files can get lost or undergo wear and tear. But electronic records stored within the cloud servers are well protected. Cloud-based solutions provide high-quality security features like data encryption and firewall protection for sensitive data and improve the sharing and storage of healthcare information. Regular data backups in the cloud ensure valuable records are always safe, even in the unlikely event of a server failure.

#3 Provides Diverse Integration and Scalability

The cloud systems allow for multiple integrations such as cloud to cloud, cloud to on-premise, or a combination of both. Besides, data integration and migration across the cloud are seamless without a drop in operational efficiency. Moreover, cloud-based systems are flexible and allow healthcare providers to scale according to storage needs and other requirements. This scalability of cloud-based software makes it easy to increase or decrease storage capacity without spending extra on additional hardware or software updates.

#4 Decreases Cost Burden and Improves ROI

Cloud systems are widely popular due to their cost-effectiveness feature. Cloud healthcare solutions provide cloud data storage and ensure critical information is backed up securely in multiple locations, excluding the need for hardware or software installations at an additional cost. Moreover, cloud computing provides subscription-based and on-demand working models, giving you complete power over the cost of ownership while promising a high ROI.

#5 Facilitates Advanced Data Analytics Adoption

Global industries and enterprises rely on data analytics to enhance business strategies and improve ROI. With improved data integrations, cloud-based systems complement data analytics and facilitate its adoption to drive critical data-centric decisions. Cloud analytics provides new business insights and optimizes decision-making.

Moving to the Healthcare Cloud: It’s Now or Never!

The digital future of the healthcare industry is here. But the digital transformation for health systems is not yet complete. Global healthcare organizations need robust cloud data-sharing infrastructures to remain connected and be successful. With rising healthcare costs, privacy breaches, and data security concerns, CIOs and healthcare leaders need to focus on cloud-based healthcare IT solutions. A new way to store health information is critical to provide appropriate patient care at the right time and place.

Wipro FullStride Cloud Services enables healthcare leaders to take strategic steps towards enhancing cloud benefits and preparing for the future. Our cloud-driven data management solution provides a secure, scalable, and integrated foundation to drive seamless patient journeys and potentially evolve to meet the fast-changing demands of the digital world.