Three Reasons Not to Purchase Your Own Vendor Neutral Archive (Buy it From a Service Instead).

Vendor Neutral Archiving – the Key to Success

The benefits of vendor neutral archiving (VNA) solutions are widely known today. However, the vendor neutral arena is currently being viewed in both on-premise and cloud-based perspectives. More and more healthcare providers are finding a better deal with seeking out a service instead of buying their own.

While some hospital groups have the luxury of a massive IT department with highly skilled technicians who can easily manage a vendor neutral system, most do not. Rural providers are especially at risk when considering an on-premise solution. Think of it like this – you want to take a cruise and do some island hopping in the Caribbean; do you buy a buy a cruise ship and sail it yourself?

That might seem like a stretch, but more than one provider has adopted a vendor neutral system and found that they are far outmatched when it comes to possessing the skills required to make it run effectively. There is great expense involved in purchasing, implementing and operating such a system. The job is best left to outside vendors.

Providers are required to store a wide array of data, from HL7 to DICOM and many varieties in between. Fortunately, they don’t have to rely on servers residing in their basements – they’ve got outside services providing scalable solutions. Call it an offsite vendor or an archiving service; healthcare providers are looking for solutions that offer business continuity and disaster recovery services that will keep their data streaming at a constant or near constant rate. For instance, some vendors can guarantee a 99.999 percent uptime.

Vendor neutral archiving services not only guarantee access, they also guarantee the safety of your data. They do this by storing it at more than one datacenter, often located in different geographic regions. Should a devastating event occur in one region that compromises the structure, servers and your data, the information is safely stored many miles away and is always available.

When you partner with an offsite vendor, make sure you’re choosing one that is willing to assist even after the implementation process has been completed. Pick one that doesn’t limit you to how much you can store or limit you to storage options that are more than what you need. The fee structure should be predictable, and there shouldn’t be any start up fees or migration fees.

As of 2010, around 10 percent of large multisite PACS projects were working with true VNA technology. However, OffSite Image Management, Inc., utilizes Level IV datacenters that offer top-notch services and security that our clients demand, as well as true VNA. We’re helping to lead the charge in several states, offering our services to rural providers and those located in more populated areas. We can guarantee you a cost savings of up to 60 percent. Contact us today and we’ll discuss your options.