In the past months, we have been writing about how outsourcing can be effective to the healthcare industry. One service that is commonly outsourced is the company’s information technology or IT. But most healthcare companies are a bit hesitant about this, especially when they already have an internal IT department or just not certain about outsourcing at all.
So we have listed these points to help you know when it’s time for your company to consider outsourcing your IT services:
1. Overloaded IT tasks
One indicator is if your internal IT team has to render regular overtime hours to meet backlogs and hasten their tasks in the pipeline to give way for more hours to address other projects. A noticeable decline in their performance will also manifest as an effect of working longer hours in the office. At some extent, non-IT staff members like an office manager, for example, are being tapped to help the IT manning but that would be a risk since they do not have the skill and expertise in IT.
2. Limited hardware resources
As your company adheres to the advancement of technology to keep up with healthcare competencies, you will find that your server and storage won’t be enough to hold your growing medical data. The additional cost to purchase them and hiring a person to maintain it might not be a wise decision and may be counterproductive in the long run.
3. Regulation compliance
This year, a new medical coding standard will take place called the ICD-10, which the World Health Organization has created to “note various medical records including diseases, symptoms, abnormal findings, and external causes of injury.” [SearchHealthIT: http://searchhealthit.techtarget.com/definition/ICD-10]. And with HIPAA requiring healthcare companies to comply, your IT resources need to increase its coding volume and structure. When there is an operations upgrade to keep up with the medical regulation compliance, it may be time to consider outsourcing some of the IT services.
We are not suggesting that you get rid of your in-house IT professionals. Instead, arrange a partnership set-up between your internal IT department and the outsourcing vendor to have a well-maintained and competent IT capacity. If you recognize these indicators in your healthcare company, then it may be the best time to evaluate your IT potential in outsourcing IT services.
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