IT BASED COMMUNICATION MODALITY IN HEALTH CARE

IT Based Communication Modality In Health Care

IT Based Communication Modality In Health Care

Introduction

Historically, hospitals, physician practices, and other healthcare provider organizations invested sparingly in IT compared with other industries (Matthew 2009). But competitive pressures, rising costs, revenue constraints, and increasingly stringent regulatory requirements have combined to drive major initiatives to improve service quality, process efficiency, and staff productivity. For many provider organizations, IT is recognized as a critical component of these initiatives and the adoption of IT has accelerated accordingly.

Communications & The Health Care Industry

Although the total industry IT spend in the United States remains well below that of other industries in which IT use is far more mature, IDC estimates that the current 7.4% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for overall IT spending by U.S. healthcare providers ranks it as one of the fastest-growing vertical markets in the United States (Matthew 2009). Outside the United States, the CAGR in overall IT spending by healthcare providers also exceeds that of other industries and currently approaches 8% in Western Europe and Asia/Pacific (APAC). For packaged software products, the CAGR in all of these markets now approaches 9%.

The focus of these IT investments not only has increased but also has shifted. Until recently, the majority of IT investments by healthcare providers have been devoted to core financial and administrative transaction systems, but over the past five years, investments have shifted from these traditional "back of the house" applications to applications designed to support patient care (Matthew 2009). Despite this dramatic growth, healthcare IT is still in its infancy, with further, sustained growth predicted.

Arguably, the most prominent example of increased IT investment by healthcare providers is the deployment of EMRs. In one of the most comprehensive surveys of healthcare IT usage conducted to date, the American Hospital ...