There is a lot of talk about “big data,” and for good reason; when you can drill down into your data, you can often find solutions. But the massive amounts of data organizations are creating is beginning to pile up. This is just as true in healthcare as it is in any industry.
A healthcare enterprise, small medium or large, has to prepare for the waves of data that they’ve already started to compile. Unfortunately, many of the data centers in small and medium-sized healthcare facilities are not prepared and are worried that they’ll soon be overrun. The problem with that is that there are regulatory issues that have to be considered. Falling out of compliance poses a major hurdle for some of these facilities.
There are a number of reasons why data is becoming an issue. First off, the Baby Boomers are aging and relying on the services of healthcare experts, often more than one for any given health issue. There is also an increasing demand for more security regulation. Home care has also become more prevalent within the last 10 years. All of this has driven a drastic spike in the amount of data being captured, stored and shared.
BridgeHead Software conducted a survey in 2012 proposing that the healthcare industry produces around 30 percent of the world’s data. Only a quarter of facilities surveyed said they had sufficient data recovery plans. Providing adequate space for storage is an issue and coming up with a disaster recovery strategy seems to be too much for most facilities.
Your healthcare enterprise is probably equipped with a data system that isn’t sophisticated and doesn’t give you the options for expansion that you need. As your population base ages, you’ll most likely be underserved by your current on-site servers. With one in five hospitals using 3D imaging, which takes up a lot of space, the possibility that you’ll be offering this to your patients soon will present you with even more issues regarding your massive amounts of data, where it will be stored and how it will be shared with the appropriate providers.
Healthcare providers need access to their medical imaging that is always available yet secure. Doctors who have access to images, even if it’s on a mobile device, can provide better quality care. When paired with a vendor neutral solution, they have more options in how they deliver care.
Our company has focused on the small hospitals and their needs for more storage solutions. At OffSite Image Management we know how few resources the smaller facilities have because we’ve learned much of what we know about radiology in facilities of similar size. We’ve created an image solution for a healthcare enterprise that has few resources. The quality is top notch but the price is reasonable. Furthermore, we’ve used Level IV data centers with redundancies in place that will protect your data.