THE TOP 3 BARRIERS TO ELECTRONIC HEALTHCARE DELIVERY

Transcription

1 THE TOP 3 BARRIERS TO ELECTRONIC HEALTHCARE DELIVERY

2 TAble of contents Introduction Frost & Sullivan White Papers Clinicians Increasing Dependence on Applications Demands a Strategic View of the Network....2 Building a Strong Network Infrastructure with Less Staff, Time, and Money Ensure Your Hospital and Patient Data Stay Secure Across the Entire Network Success Stories Iowa Health System Lüneburg Municipal Medical Centre About Frost & Sullivan About Brocade The Top 3 Barriers to Electronic Healthcare Delivery

3 The network s role in high-quality healthcare delivery The network infrastructure has never been more important to the delivery of high-quality healthcare. No longer simply facilitating data flow, the network now plays a strategic role in meeting collaboration and quality-of-care requirements. To support anytime, anywhere, any-device access to clinical applications, promote patient engagement, and ensure healthcare provider compliance mandates are met, hospitals must continually adopt new technologies or risk patient care outcomes that are less than optimal. Adding to the challenge are rising network security concerns, competing budget priorities, vendor lock-in constraints, and interoperability issues that are making it extremely difficult for hospital IT departments to 71% expand the network cost-effectively. Get the information you need to stay ahead of the curve of clinicians declare that if healthcare IT were eliminated they would be able to do To help you address these issues, this ebook features a series only half or less of their work. Source: CDW 2012, Healthcare Informatics 2011 of recent Frost & Sullivan white papers, as well as relevant case studies, showcasing how network innovations are transforming healthcare around the world. The following pages provide practical insights that can help ensure your hospital is at the forefront when it comes to meeting current and future healthcare demands in this age of tightening budgets and shrinking staff resources. The Top 3 Barriers to Electronic Healthcare Delivery 1

4 THE TOP 3 BARRIERS TO ELECTRONIC HEALTHCARE DELIVERY FROST & SULLIVAN WHITE PAPER Clinicians Increasing Dependence on Applications Demands a Strategic View of the Network The Top 3 Barriers to Electronic Healthcare Delivery 2

5 Clinicians Increasing Dependence on Applications Demands a Strategic View of the Network Perspective Hospitals are mission-critical environments and therefore demanding environments for new technology adoption. Better health outcomes rely on new information technology (IT) applications supporting anytime, anywhere, any device access to clinical applications, medical-decision support and collaboration tools. A must-have for clinicians is the ability to access medical records, imaging files and other clinical information from various locations via a variety of devices. Exchange of this information across the care continuum is pivotal to better health outcomes. Clinician dependency on these critical applications and collaboration tools results in the need for robust and reliable network and communication infrastructures to ensure optimal care delivery and end-user experience. To this end, networks need to be configured and built to meet clinician demands for speed, reliability, security and flexibility today and for the future. Traditionally, healthcare has viewed network infrastructure as facilitating data flow for transactional events, principally related to administrative and business functions. Provider adoption of electronic health records (EHRs), Picture Archiving and Communications Systems (PACS), Computer Physician Order Entry (CPOE), Health Information Exchanges (HIEs) and, increasingly, remote patient monitoring and telehealth solutions, has changed the operational environment, creating a more exacting demand for cumulative patient data and clinical functionality. With the deployment of these critical health IT applications, exploding volumes of data, and more varied file types, existing infrastructure is being stressed and network responsiveness is being impacted. Add in the upcoming roll outs of applications like high-resolution video and voice over IP, along with requirements for IT support coming with new care models such as ACOs, new data sources such as mhealth solutions, and new regulatory requirements such as ICD-10, and it is easy to see that network reliability and flexibility must be a strategic focus for successful hospital operations. The Top 3 Barriers to Electronic Healthcare Delivery 3

6 Clinicians Increasing Dependence on Applications Demands a Strategic View of the Network In effect, hospitals have entered a virtual universe of healthcare delivery, with converging advances in information and communication systems and medical technology. Hospital network infrastructure needs to ensure wired and wireless applications and users are not only up and running, but facilitating the integration and exchange of health information for better health outcomes. Integration of past and current health data is requisite; on-demand access to health information is not negotiable. The need is real On-demand access to health information is not negotiable. Hospitals are by nature risk-averse, and are already acquiring insurance policies against administrative and patient care penalties and/or lawsuits related to network malfunctions. Hospital executives and information and communications technology (ICT) leaders need to look at their network infrastructure in a new light. Evaluations of ICT solutions must be based on a wider array of factors and must be viewed as dynamic elements in a flexible, changing infrastructure. Network design must support robust performance, ease of upgrade, cost-effective operation and growth, flexibility and security to meet current and future needs. The Top 3 Barriers to Electronic Healthcare Delivery 4

7 Clinicians Increasing Dependence on Applications Demands a Strategic View of the Network Hospital network infrastructure must be regulatory-compliant and continually fine-tuned to facilitate and not handicap operations. As part of a hospital s infrastructure, networks must be upgraded to accommodate new services, administrative and financial requirements, and compliance regulations. As the importance of health IT and communications solutions goes forward, network infrastructure issues will be seen as strategic to better health outcomes, not just plumbing that supports transactional administrative tasks. The operative question is how to shift network focus to the addition of modules that support system responsiveness and impact real-time availability and access to health data. All this must be achieved cost-effectively, as hospitals exist in a world of tight margins and declining reimbursement. The Top 3 Barriers to Electronic Healthcare Delivery 5

8 Clinicians Increasing Dependence on Applications Demands a Strategic View of the Network A unique set of challenges has evolved from the rapid adoption of wired and wireless applications by hospital physicians, clinicians and ancillary service professionals. Bandwidth, for example, has increased demand for fast, real-time voice, video and patient-critical applications and solutions accessed from anywhere at any time. Reliability will be measured in terms of redundancy, a faulttolerant network to support an environment of key applications that must be available 24x7. Hospitals are seeking robust solutions that will allow their IT staff to focus on deploying applications and services rather than spending time on routine network tasks that should be automated. Flexibility will be measured on the ability to add in new network elements on the fly without degrading the performance of the network. The Top 3 Barriers to Electronic Healthcare Delivery 6

9 Clinicians Increasing Dependence on Applications Demands a Strategic View of the Network Options include: Network investment to support higher performance and a flatter network architecture, supporting the adoption of cloud solutions Fabric technology to address the performance challenges of traditional Ethernet and to enable the levels of agility and simplified management required for today s healthcare facilities Stacking switches at the edge of data center networks that appear as a single, logical switch at the top of each server rack Support of increased mobility with innovative solutions to counter new security and bandwidth challenges from wireless networking Optimization of cloud Flexibility and investment protection with stackable solutions on the LAN The Top 3 Barriers to Electronic Healthcare Delivery 7

10 Clinicians Increasing Dependence on Applications Demands a Strategic View of the Network Future considerations for a strategic network infrastructure: Will an underinvestment in network hardware and software impact clinical care? What are the organizational, clinical and financial risks associated with a stressed network? How will each of these risks be managed? How do you manage a growing number of devices attributed to patients, staff and vendors (BYOD Bring Your Own Device), while planning for growth and increased sophistication of applications and diagnostics to improve care? How will the expansion of server virtualization change the requirements for a flatter, less hierarchical network design to support system performance? The Top 3 Barriers to Electronic Healthcare Delivery 8

11 THE TOP 3 BARRIERS TO ELECTRONIC HEALTHCARE DELIVERY FROST & SULLIVAN WHITE PAPER Building a Strong Network Infrastructure with Less Staff Time and Money The Top 3 Barriers to Electronic Healthcare Delivery 9

12 Building a Strong Network Infrastructure with Less Staff Time and Money Hospitals are faced with competing priorities as they strive to manage costs to align with thin margins and declining reimbursements. In addition to the capabilities and benefits of the product or solution, new purchases are often scrutinized based on total cost of ownership (TCO) and return on investment (ROI). Purchasing decisions are often tempered by whether or not the product/ solution is treated as a capital expense Networking decision-makers are or operational expense, or whether or not now giving stronger consideration discretionary departmental funds can to a multi-vendor strategy. be used. While network infrastructure is normally considered a capital expense, new models of payment help create alternatives that offer options beyond outright capital equipment purchase. These options are increasingly being evaluated for their alignment with hospitals financial requirements. Within an often-difficult financial environment, where non-clinical purchases are heavily scrutinized, hospital executives recognize that network infrastructure is a strategic element supporting their ability to provide quality care. For CIOs and networking decision-makers, the ongoing challenge is to invest in a robust network infrastructure that supports administrative, financial and clinical functions, while The Top 3 Barriers to Electronic Healthcare Delivery 10

13 Building a Strong Network Infrastructure with Less Staff Time and Money Perspective managing with an eye toward future network capacity and infrastructure growth. In order to achieve these goals, flexibility in adding new network capabilities and building a network architecture that can meet changing demands such as new mission-critical applications and network expansion needs driven by consolidation is critical to justifying purchases. Healthcare providers that have experienced single-vendor limitations and barriers to their network expansion strategies have begun to consider this needed flexibility in their TCO assessments. As protection, networking decision-makers are now giving stronger consideration to a multi-vendor strategy with standards-based infrastructure components that are interoperable with existing technologies and preserve their original investment. The Top 3 Barriers to Electronic Healthcare Delivery 11

14 Building a Strong Network Infrastructure with Less Staff Time and Money Need To optimize network infrastructure, there must be the ability to acquire equipment at the right time, assess offerings and costs from multiple vendors, and evaluate the options in terms of TCO. Networking decisionmakers need assurance that the network components purchased today will not limit their flexibility in future network expansions, will not tie them into a single vendor s products, and will not bind them to costly upgrades and forklift change outs if that vendor stops supporting proprietary network elements. VENDOR The main goal is to minimize network infrastructure costs, maintain future options for growth, and maximize work capacity and efficiency of IT staff. In addition, managing the timing, installation and implementation of network expansion is pivotal in the procurement of infrastructure LOCK-IN elements. Solutions best aligned with these needs would include two characteristics: Vendor solutions based on open standards that enable interoperability and provide the buyer with leverage that is often absent when locked in to a single vendor s proprietary technology Competitive purchasing models that can be structured to align with hospital financial goals, budgets and projected outlays. Buying options to be evaluated would include direct purchase versus leasing versus subscription The Top 3 Barriers to Electronic Healthcare Delivery 12

15 Building a Strong Network Infrastructure with Less Staff Time and Money Limiting non-revenue-generating expenses Challenges This responsibility translates into maintaining a network infrastructure design that creates the most value for the hospital. Networking decision-makers are becoming acutely aware of issues of vendor lock-in: loss of options in network expansion, and pressure to make forklift upgrades if there is a dependence on a single vendor for refreshes, replacements or new modules. In making decisions about infrastructure procurement, there is a new focus on both qualitative and quantitative measures of TCO. This includes consideration of costs associated with staff training, time required for maintenance issues and system downtime. Maintaining a high-performance, low-maintenance environment This means avoiding recurring support costs, such as vendor service fees for legacy systems and costs associated with technical training that hospitals have to bear. There is an overarching need to manage the hospital network with limited IT support staff; time invested in repairing the network takes time away from more valuable efforts to deploy new IT applications and capabilities. In the current healthcare environment, the goal is to focus IT staff as much as possible on the delivery of new applications and services that are required to meet organizational goals and milestones. The Top 3 Barriers to Electronic Healthcare Delivery 13

16 Building a Strong Network Infrastructure with Less Staff Time and Money Focusing IT support on new value-added applications and capabilities Challenges Collaboration tools such as video streaming, virtual desktop and unified communications, and enabling EHR and other emerging healthcare delivery models using handheld mobile devices, helps the organization meet goals for quality care delivery. But these new applications and capabilities create network complexities that threaten to increase operating expenses associated with network maintenance. In a mission-critical environment, network infrastructure with high maintenance demands can become a quality assurance issue impacting the ability to provide patient services. The Top 3 Barriers to Electronic Healthcare Delivery 14

17 Building a Strong Network Infrastructure with Less Staff Time and Money Solutions Networking decision-makers should consider establishing an open-source ecosystem to meet their technology requirements and budget. Open sourcing supports multivendor choice and flexibility in future network growth. As such, it protects the investment in existing infrastructure, avoids forklift change outs, and allows investments to be limited to the areas of the network that need to be refreshed. A multivendor strategy provides advantages in choosing the solution that best matches the need (in terms of both price and performance capabilities) and in adopting best-in-class technology as it is developed. A multivendor strategy provides advantages in choosing the solution that best matches the need. Another cost management strategy is migrating to a network subscription buying model in lieu of a direct purchase. In a network subscription, cost is based on utilization, a pay-as-you-go model similar to the one adopted for the purchase of high-end medical technologies. A subscription service creates the flexibility to scale up or down based on actual network usage, with no capital outlay, and allows hospitals to add and reconfigure network technology at the right time without limitations tied to traditional purchase cycles. The Top 3 Barriers to Electronic Healthcare Delivery 15

18 Building a Strong Network Infrastructure with Less Staff Time and Money Future considerations for a strategic network infrastructure: What operational efficiencies and cost-savings can be realized from open-source hardware? Future How does mix-and-match stacking reduce costs and preserve the investment over the life of the product? How can the network be simplified and automated to avoid potential loss of service? How can network design support economies of scale in a world of healthcare provider consolidation? How does subscription-based buying support the need to realign costs with revenues? The Top 3 Barriers to Electronic Healthcare Delivery 16

19 THE TOP 3 BARRIERS TO ELECTRONIC HEALTHCARE DELIVERY FROST & SULLIVAN WHITE PAPER Ensure Your Hospital and Patient Data Stay Secure Across the Entire Network The Top 3 Barriers to Electronic Healthcare Delivery 17

20 Ensure Your Hospital and Patient Data Stay Secure Across the Entire Network Perspective While protecting the integrity of patient data has long been a primary focus for healthcare organizations, the move to a system built on digital health records has created new challenges when it comes to keeping patient data secure. The shift toward collaborative care models further complicates security issues for hospital IT executives, since the need for widespread data access and data exchange are keys to success in both care delivery and meeting government requirements and incentives. In this era of connected health, network decision-makers are faced with a daunting task: support on-demand access to patient data required by clinical and administrative staff, while keeping the network safe and secure. This increasingly includes access by clinicians and other stakeholders both inside and outside the hospital s walls, and access via a wide array of devices. In addition to hospital staff and affiliated physicians, patients and family members are accessing the network while at the hospital both for patient education purposes as well as convenience creating yet another potential security issue. The Top 3 Barriers to Electronic Healthcare Delivery 18

21 Ensure Your Hospital and Patient Data Stay Secure Across the Entire Network Perspective The ultimate responsibility for addressing these issues with health data security resides with hospital IT departments, a public trust that requires a holistic strategy that meets the following criteria: Encompasses the end-to-end network wired and wireless Protects all applications and devices from intrusions, malware and DoS attacks Establishes a centralized management approach to comply with regulatory statutes; this includes policies and procedures, as well as routine assessments of security metrics across the network In security assessments, it is important to note that vulnerabilities in healthcare organizations increasingly arise from the convergence of applications (IP telephony, video streaming, collaboration, mobility and next-generation diagnostics) and unauthorized access that can corrupt data. Additional risks arise from operating system features, such as configuration servers, controls on access and whether switches and devices can be authenticated before allowing connection to the network. For healthcare organizations, these risks create exposure to negative publicity and lawsuits that can impact public trust and competitiveness. Conducting a regular audit to evaluate risks and vulnerabilities against security strategy across the entire network should be part of the centralized management approach described above. By defining and distributing security practices across the network, IT executives can meet performance expectations and minimize the hospital s risk for internal and external security breaches. The Top 3 Barriers to Electronic Healthcare Delivery 19

22 Ensure Your Hospital and Patient Data Stay Secure Across the Entire Network Need In today s hospital environment, enablement of quality care requires creating a balance between access and the need to secure the data. Compliance alone is not the end goal for data security in a hospital. The first priority should be to keep patient data and administrative and operational information safe, and minimize risk for non-compliance. However, network infrastructure must be secure without degrading transmission speed of data or negatively impacting care delivery. Successful hospital operations require anytime, anywhere, any device access to patient electronic medical records. Add to this the shifts toward collaborative care models and increased patient engagement that will result in ongoing increases in the number of stakeholders accessing the network. In this environment of dynamic access and information sharing, security co-exists with and supports flexibility and scalability. Finally, with tight budgets and multiple demands on IT staff, leveraging automation to save IT staff time is key to successful operations. The first priority should be to keep patient data and administrative and operational information safe. The Top 3 Barriers to Electronic Healthcare Delivery 20

23 Ensure Your Hospital and Patient Data Stay Secure Across the Entire Network Challenges With these requirements to securely access and share information and allow users to collaborate across the network, the ability to ensure the safety and security of hospital and patient data is a challenge on multiple levels. A comprehensive security strategy involves addressing the following questions: What constitutes a safe and secure intelligence layer that facilitates the sharing of information and collaboration across the network yet minimizes the liability risk if policies and procedures are not followed? What standard encryption solution is considered best practice in facilitating access to patient electronic medical records while protecting data integrity? What factors ensure data is secure across the network? A holistic approach to secure hospital and patient data must start at the network infrastructure level and involve partnerships with leading network security vendors. An ecosystem of security solutions should combine advanced data and application protection with high-performance, low-latency network admission control, firewalling, intrusion detection and prevention and DoS mitigation. The Top 3 Barriers to Electronic Healthcare Delivery 21

24 Ensure Your Hospital and Patient Data Stay Secure Across the Entire Network The following elements are considered best-practice guidelines: Security design must be robust, but flexible, in wired/wireless environments to avoid impeding IT and clinical operations. Solutions An end-to-end, holistic access control approach protects patient data regardless of where the information resides, and protects applications from intruders and malware. Security solutions must be able to accommodate the distributive nature of how, where and when patient data is created and accessed, as well as the exponential growth of data. Security solutions should be automated in order to reduce IT staff time required. The Top 3 Barriers to Electronic Healthcare Delivery 22

25 Ensure Your Hospital and Patient Data Stay Secure Across the Entire Network Future considerations: How are hospital applications, systems and patient information protected against unauthorized access (e.g., hacking, interception, user misuse), and does the level of protection put the hospital at risk? Future What are the hospital s responsibilities regarding the security of infrastructure and information in the cloud for the chosen cloud service and deployment models? What are the total costs of setting up processes and procedures to ensure data security in your hospital? How can hospitals future proof their network against currently unknown threats, while accommodating future application and information-sharing requirements, to stay a step ahead of security risks? The Top 3 Barriers to Electronic Healthcare Delivery 23

26 Solutions in action: Tackling today s healthcare networking challenges The Top 3 Barriers to Electronic Healthcare Delivery 24

27 SUCCESS STORY Iowa Health System Challenge Over the past decade, Iowa Health System (IHS) has expanded to include 27 hospitals, 200 clinics, and more than 2,700 patient beds. This continual growth was putting extreme pressure on an aging network a problem that became quickly apparent during the implementation of its Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS) and other next-generation applications. As an added challenge, IHS planned to deploy Unified Communications and accommodate cloud computing distances greater than 100 miles. To ensure a future-proofed upgrade, it needed to find a network provider that could design an infrastructure capable of evolving with technology changes and scaling to meet forthcoming demands. Solutions IHS was able to create a single, unified data architecture that could meet PACS and Electronic Medical Records (EMR) demands, plus accommodate future technologies such as Unified Communications and cloud-based computing by deploying Brocade networking solutions. we learned through experience that having a standards-based approach and multiple vendors gives us more options and greater flexibility. Brocade is very much a standards-based organization and met those criteria for us. Tony Langenstein Chief Technology Officer Results Enabled high performance and reliability to support PACS and EMR systems, patient-centric applications, and mobile devices Reduced capital expenses by up to $150,000 by eliminating unnecessary network equipment Provided unmatched simplicity with a single, unified network architecture built on proven solutions Protected IT investments by providing a standards-based, bestof-breed solution that seamlessly integrates with existing systems The Top 3 Barriers to Electronic Healthcare Delivery 25

28 SUCCESS STORY Lüneburg Municipal Medical Centre Challenge As a leading German university teaching hospital, Lüneburg Municipal Medical Centre (LMMC) had grown to employ more than 1,160 staff. With 25 network cabinets spanning 50,000 square miles and 12 buildings, LMMC s network was becoming increasingly complex and outdated. Specifically, its network could not provide the performance levels and capacity required to support newer, bandwidthintensive medical applications and the users who depended on them. In addition, part of the infrastructure was still running at 100 Mbps, which was too slow to keep pace with exponentially increasing bandwidth requirements. Solutions With these constraints in mind, LMMC set out to upgrade its network to safeguard the availability of patient data, ensure network and systems availability, and increase network performance all while avoiding system downtime. Thanks to our Brocade infrastructure, which gives us 30 percent higher performance overall, we now have the network technology to implement everything to meet the medical requirements of our hospital. Sandra Keutz Director Lüneburg Municipal Medical Centre Results Increased overall network performance by 30 percent while reducing maintenance costs Improved stability and availability of network resources Reduced complexity and support requirements by standardizing on Brocade technology Enabled innovative hospital applications for managing electronic patient records, billing, medical images, and other specialized information The Top 3 Barriers to Electronic Healthcare Delivery 26

29 About Frost & Sullivan Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Consulting Company, partners with clients to accelerate their growth. The company s Growth Partnership Services, Growth Consulting, and Career Best Practices empower clients to create a growth-focused culture that generates, evaluates, and implements effective growth strategies. Frost & Sullivan employs more than 50 years of experience in partnering with Global 1000 companies, emerging businesses, and the investment community from more than 40 offices on six continents. For more information about Frost & Sullivan s Growth Partnerships, visit The Top 3 Barriers to Electronic Healthcare Delivery 27

30 about Brocade Founded in 1995, Brocade is an industry leader in providing reliable, high-performance network solutions that help the world s leading organizations transition smoothly to a virtualized world where applications and information reside anywhere. Brocade combines a proven track record of expertise, innovation, and new technology development with open standards leadership and strategic partnerships with the world s leading IT companies resulting in an extensive partner ecosystem that enables truly best-in-class business solutions. Visit The Top 3 Barriers to Electronic Healthcare Delivery 28