Whitepaper - Software On Demand

The 'On Demand' Revolution

The On Demand Solution

Health information technology plays a critical and increasingly important role in the performance of physician practices. With lower reimbursements and increasingly complex regulations, physician practices are being driven to use new technologies to automate manual processes.

To remain competitive, profitable and compliant in this rapidly changing healthcare climate, physician practices must transform their office operations. Practices relying on paper based and manual labor to operate and provide care will struggle to survive. Practices must find solutions that will provide best practices and drive business and clinical process to perform at a higher level of efficiency.

The complexity of the physician office has increased the dependency on technology. While the dependence is growing, so is the cost. Physician practices have carefully scrutinized the upfront cost of traditional software licenses, but have missed the much larger costs of managing their existing software & network infrastructure.

According to Gartner, a leading IT research firm, more than 75% of the IT budget is spent on maintaining and running existing systems and software infrastructure. So it is no surprise that despite major investments, many physician practices have stalled with their investments. Hidden costs of upgrades, new hardware, and training have left many offices on old out dated systems that are no longer supported by their vendors. The practices who have tried to keep up are not realizing the return on their software as they struggle to implement, integrate, maintain, and upgrade their bulky business and clinical applications.

A Profound Shift

A profound shift is occurring in the way that software applications are purchased and delivered. Customers have become increasingly dissatisfied by resource-intensive software deployment cycles that take several months and yield less-than-optimal results, and are actively seeking the ability to consume software products as services.

The Software as a Service (SaaS) or "On Demand" model offers significant benefits to the physician practice, including reductions in cost, risk, and the length of time it takes to recognize value from the investment. According to new research by Merrill Lynch, "The on demand model could lower the overall costs of deployment by 5-10 times as compared to traditional implementation models."

What Is On Demand Computing?

Historically, physician practices were required to buy, build, and maintain their own HealthIT infrastructures despite exponential costs. This included software upgrades and hidden service cost that made the total cost of ownership (TCO) difficult to keep current. On demand computing gives medical offices an alternative. Now they can plug in and subscribe to services built on world-class infrastructure via the “On Demand” model.

In the "On Demand" world, your practice management & clinical applications are delivered over the Internet by your software provider for a monthly subscription fee. There are little to no upfront costs; you simply pay-as-you go for the features you use. By spreading costs over many customers, on demand providers can better afford to invest in the infrastructure required to support higher levels of software reliability than a physician practices could achieve on its own.

The cost of integration has made is difficult and costly for a physician practice to have an application communicate with another application. Many on demand vendors provide the integration for you and deal with making sure the systems communicate and pass data reducing redundant data entry. The on demand vendor automates routine maintenance tasks such as backups, hardware upgrades, and security protection. Change is embraced and even built into the delivery of applications with regular and automatic software updates.

With on demand technology, a physician practice can free itself from the upfront expense of software licenses and hardware. It can get up and running more quickly and take advantage of first-class infrastructure at a fraction of the cost of managing the software in-house. Software from on demand vendors can be updated frequently in response to customer needs and the ever changing healthcare regulations.

Benefits of On Demand

• Decrease total cost of ownership

• Decrease time to value

• Higher levels of software reliability

• Vendor provides security, backups, hardware upgrades

• Always on the latest software

• Integration set-up and maintained by your vendor

• Focus on practicing medicine, not on technology

Why On Demand now?

Leaders in the software industry have been predicting a rise in the software as a service (SaaS) model for over five years, but explosive growth has occurred within the last couple years. The most likely explanation is the increasing availability of broadband internet services. According to Nielsen/ Netratings, a leading Internet analyst, broadband penetration at work has reached 80% in 2004, up from just 40% in 2000. With the availability and reliability of broadband today, customers can now rely on the Internet for the delivery of mission-critical business applications.

Is Your Practice Ready for the On Demand World?

The most crucial technology investments for any physician practice are practice management system and clinical documentation. These systems are at the foundation of your practice and will account for the largest share of your IT budget. By moving to the on demand world, your practice management and clinical documentation software will be on a platform that will allow secure transfer of information. Sharing information with patients and interfacing with other third-parties, such as hospitals, insurance companies, and clearinghouses, is greatly facilitated. On demand software can also help physician practices capture more information electronically and automate many of their most labor intensive data entry tasks.

Reject the cost, risk, and complexity of traditional healthcare software

On Demand solutions are positioned to free physician practices from traditional practice management and clinical documentation software and its hidden costs, high failure rates, unacceptable risks, and protracted implementations. All while providing a comprehensive and flexible solution that meets the needs of practices of all sizes, from largest clinics to small and mid-sized practices.

Save up to 70% by eliminating hidden costs

With on demand solutions, there is no software or hardware to buy, install, maintain, or upgrade. This equates to savings of as much as 70% compared to similar client/server solutions. Subscription pricing typically includes everything you need, so that unlike traditional practice management software, you won't be surprised later by hidden people and technology costs that can quickly add up to as much as 10 times the original licensing fees.

Reduce your risk and decrease your time to value

The risk involved in implementing On Demand solutions is minimized by eliminating the need for upfront capital investment. And since all you need to start using an On Demand solution is your basic IT infrastructure and an internet connection your path to production use of your solution is exceptionally short. As a result, you'll hit breakeven and begin to experience ROI in a much shorter period of time.

Focus on your practice, not on technology

Technology for your practice should solve your practice problems, not create more headaches. With an on demand solution, you'll be free to focus on delivery of patient care, not worrying about infrastructure requirements, maintenance, upgrades and unexpected capital cost.

Conclusions

The On Demand core value proposition extends beyond cost savings to a much more. The On Demand model encompasses the quality of service guarantees associated with IT best practices that are otherwise beyond the reach of many small to midsize practices. Healthcare is a dynamic field that is constantly changing, is your technology solution positioned to move with the changes? On Demand software provides a dynamic platform that will keep your practice current, secure, and up to date with the best technology. Being able to adapt to rapid technology changes will give you the edge needed to deliver quality care and have a successful business too!