From the January/February 2014 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine


Yet, the ability for the IT professional to carry out their duties varies based on the systems and software they work with. “The motivation for businesses is similar to what it’s always been — I want you to be a customer for a long period of time and be dependent on me for as much as I can get away with for as many aspects possible,” says Michael Gray, principal of Gray Consulting.

According to Gray, the profitability comes not from the sale of the product, but the maintenance contract and professional services required to customize the product. This “bundling” provides lower upfront costs for the customer, while delivering a regular income source for the software/service provider. That is, of course, if a hospital’s own IT staff isn’t up-to-task or doesn’t have the level of access needed to customize the products. “If a user asks if they’ll be trained to use the system — to customize it, to trouble shoot it, they (software providers) hope to not have to say “yes” to any of that,” says Gray.


Sprinting in a marathon
For the health IT sector, there’s not a realistic finish line. As long as there’s health care, there will be the need to effectively manage all the information facets that lead to more effective, efficient and profitable patient care.

“It’s a mix of challenges. While there’s certainly more and more systems and technological architecture going virtual, at the end of that, there’s still a physical system,” says Holling. “There’s still someone that needs to understand how that physical system is operating.”

However, the person charged with understanding how the system is operating isn’t able to stop there. With hospitals feeling the budget crunch, every department is being challenged to do more with less and IT is no exception. Today’s IT professional is expected to be proficient on numerous systems. They’re expected to come into their position with knowledge of multiple systems, learn more on the job and if possible, attend courses for further updates.

“The pace of everything going on is intense. From new federal regulations and meaningful use to the coding criteria like ICD- 10 coming out this year — it all really places challenges on health IT professionals to keep up with the newest upgrades,” says Holling.

Talk amongst yourselves
Another challenge health IT teams face is the issue of interoperability. Without the ability to readily communicate with other systems both inside and outside of a facility’s physical walls, delivering high-quality and immediate patient care can be nearly impossible.

January/February 2014 Magazine

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