The digital conundrum for small and midsize healthcare businesses: Where do you start?

[Rich_Bird]

Even before the pandemic hit, smaller healthcare providers were grappling with digital disruptors and exploring new technology enablers. Now the questions are bigger – and so are the opportunities. We cover them in detail in a session at HPE Discover Virtual Experience, now available on-demand.

Even if only in our consumer lives, most of us are aware of the massive technology changes that have been sweeping the healthcare industry in recent years. To take one example, just a few years ago the idea of a rich, information-filled remote consultation with a clinician was just a dream. It’s increasingly a reality – and a very timely one that helps to protect care-givers and patients alike as we all adjust to an unprecedented health environment.

It’s the explosion of medical data, of course, and increasingly sophisticated ways to manage it, that’s fueling this and many other innovations. Personal health data pours into “quantified self” devices – Fitbits, Apple watches and other trackers and wearables. It’s generated in huge quantities by at-bedside devices, whether personal prescribed machines or the connected medical devices in hospitals. It flows between patients and clinicians via tele-healthcare systems and accumulates in electronic medical records, text-based and visual. From there, it may flow into massive medical databases and out to the research community.

For small and midsized healthcare organizations, the biggest opportunities will likely cluster around the central sections of this information flow. Data-driven improvements around medical records, for example, can transform clinical efficiency; doctors can spend less time on administration and waiting for systems to respond – or even, in some cases, waiting for paper records to be delivered. They can have all of the information at their fingertips so they can do what they went into medicine to do – care for patients. And patients can reduce the amount of time they have to spend in the doctor's office or hospital. In short, doctors can spend more time being doctors, and patients can spend more time being … people.

That said, the technology aspects may seem a bit overwhelming to small and midsized providers, especially at a time when they’re facing urgent demands around adjusting to COVID-19. Look at it this way, though: the epidemic is basically accelerating the trends that were already shaping the sector: faster, more responsive, digital patient care; remote capabilities for interactions with colleagues and patients; and better exchange of information via tele-healthcare systems. If you haven’t yet developed an infrastructure strategy for your digital future, right now could be a great time to start.

So, where do you start?

In a Business Talk session at HPE Discover Virtual Experience, my colleague Victoria Hanrahan and I delved into that question in some detail: Deliver patient care securely and digitally – Where do I start? Here are our suggestions for the most important things to think about when designing your infrastructure strategy:

1. Reliability. A digitized healthcare business can’t afford any downtime. If your organization is extending its tele-health capabilities to enable staff members to work from home, consider virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) solutions to enable your employees to stay productive and keep your business running. HPE offers HPE Small Business Solutions for Remote Workers, complete packages that include the hardware, software and services for a robust VDI deployment to reinforce business continuity.

2. Security. With the proliferation of new data sources and the rise of telemedicine and remote working, you’ll want to ensure that both your traditional office environment and your home connections are strongly protected with the latest cybersecurity. Consider HPE Gen10 servers, the world’s most secure industry-standard servers.

3. Financing. Budgets are tight right now, but HPE Financial Services can help with a broad range of IT financing and asset lifecycle solutions including our 2020 Payment Relief Program to help you navigate the current disruptions.

I’ve just touched on the main points of our presentation here, and I’d strongly recommend taking a look at the video. At just 15 minutes or so, it covers a lot of ground. We cover all of the major disruptors and enablers in the industry right now, as well as a great example of a pharmacy that turned to HPE to modernize its infrastructure.

HPE offers an easy-to-deploy, office-in-a-box bundle that’s ideal for small healthcare offices; watch this short video to learn more: Secure Small Office Deployment with HPE ProLiant Microserver Gen10 Plus

For a closer look at how HPE enables you to deliver digital patient care, protect your data and rein in costs, see our new ebook: Healthcare Solutions for Small and Midsize Businesses.

You can find more info about all of our SMB solutions for specific verticals, including healthcare, here: HPE Industry Solutions for Small and Midsized Businesses.

Learn more about HPE small business IT solutions.

Rich Bird
Hewlett Packard Enterprise

twitter.com/RichBird
linkedin.com/in/rich-bird/
hpe.com/info/healthcare