Years ago, many healthcare providers jumped head first into electronic health records (EHR) and established what they thought was a good system. However, it’s becoming quite clear that as technology improves by leaps and bounds in very short periods of time, those original EHRs are most likely on their way out. How many, exactly? According to a health IT report from KLAS, around 50 percent of large hospitals will replace their EHR system by 2016.
A survey by Software Advice in the first quarter of this year found that around 40 percent of EHR buyers in the industry said they wanted to change their EHR system. A year prior to that, only 30 percent reported having such thoughts. So, obviously, the sentiment for change/upgrading is there and growing.
What’s the big problem? According to some CEOs in the industry, healthcare providers are building up information on their patients, but they’re having trouble connecting the information with the patients. The current systems aren’t empowering patients to take more proactive approaches to their healthcare needs. What more and more patients want is access to their information. Perhaps to offer them this access, instead of completely switching out EHRs, healthcare providers simply need to address some software issues that could provide a clearer link between data and patient?
One vendor that has been addressing this issue for more than a year now is OffSite Image Management with its Honeycomb Exchange solution.
Honeycomb Exchange is allowing healthcare providers a seamless transition from film to digital and from CDs to cloud-based sharing and storage solutions. Honeycomb Exchange, essentially, is a layer of software that lets disparate silos full of digital information communicate without facing the usual hurdles that too many healthcare providers encounter today.
OffSite Image Management, Inc. has used Honeycomb Exchange to set up health image exchanges in Missouri, Kansas, Louisiana and Michigan. Honeycomb has large advantages: the technology is for sharing data, but it’s also extremely useful for storing medical images and data in the cloud; the vendor neutral archiving makes this solution browser agnostic, which means there is zero client administration; and any radiology service provider can utilize it to put their data into any state’s exchange.
As we discussed earlier, there is a lot of talk about switching out EHRs, and the Honeycomb Exchange will make for a seamless integration with any other HIE platform. One of the biggest perks that users of Honeycomb see is reduced healthcare costs, less exposure to radiation, more satisfied patients and better physician satisfaction. Best of all, patients are getting better treatment because of Honeycomb Exchange.
Honeycomb is part of a system that is making CDs a thing of the past. Because Honeycomb is one of the most robust health image exchanges on the market, even the rural providers with their limited budgets are getting into the mix. For more information about OffSite’s many solutions, contact us today.
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