How Can I Reduce the IT Infrastructure Costs in My Healthcare Company?

The costs associated with managing and maintaining the IT infrastructure of a healthcare company can be significant.

The concerning IT costs that healthcare companies encounter may come from outside of the business. They can also be caused by the need to move to more advanced and cost-effective technologies.

Reviewing the effectiveness of your IT department should be an essential ongoing task. This means working with vendors to ensure that you’re getting the best service.

This needs to be at the lowest possible price. You should also analyze and updating your internal IT infrastructure.

The challenge is always going to be understanding which changes will bring your the greatest return on your investment in terms of cost-reductions and efficiency.
Here’s how you can reduce the IT infrastructure costs in your medical services company.

Modernize Your Servers To Improve Speed and Security

If your healthcare organization is running older servers, they will never get any faster or safer. With greater demands on your servers and an ever-increasing need to protect your data, you’ll need a new solution.

One way that you can speed up your server access safely is by moving to consolidated servers that are powered by virtual machines.

Using data center and co-location solutions, you’ll be able to ensure the highest level of physical and cybersecurity. This will also be helpful in ensuring you’re able to meet regulatory compliance.

Using a data center and co-location service will be a cost-effective way of gaining access to the type of advanced technologies your business needs.

Because you will be using outsourced server solutions, there are scalability benefits. You will be able to have the change you need without the costs associated with building or managing your data center.

Reduce Your IT Infrastructure Costs With Cloud Solutions

Is your organization still clinging onto traditional hard-disk storage? Are your employees still passing data via email attachments? If so, then it’s time to move your business forward with cloud-based technology.

Cloud solutions often cost very little to run. Because there isn’t a need to keep buying software and purchase the license or renewals, you’ll save money.

In addition to this, because there’s no installation required, you’ll save on the amount of time that it takes to manage an installation.

With the efficiency that cloud-based systems offer, your employee’s everyday IT tasks will be streamlined.

Using cloud services, everything gets automatically saved. That means that there is no need to worry about user error, causing a loss of data. This prevents issues that could be both time-consuming and costly to rectify.

Speeding up Your Workflow with Software-defined Wide Area Networks

With the growth in technologies such as artificial intelligence, the internet of things, and the use of big data, businesses have seen an increase in their required bandwidth.

With the advancements in medical technology, the healthcare sector is no different.

Your traffic probably currently uses one quite costly link and one back up.

But this is not going to be sufficient as a long-term solution as your needs grow. In this type of solution, all traffic flows using the same path towards the same destination. It will do this no matter what type of traffic it is.

Software-defined Wide Area Networks (SD-WAN) provide a solution that stops the networks from getting clogged up.

Your SD-WAN can be managed in-house, or you could use a provider to take care of this for you.

The advantage of using a provider would be that you’d get the help planning and designing your network before it is built. In addition, you will also receive the ongoing support that you need with your managed SD-WAN.

Invest in Your Security

89% of all healthcare companies in the United States have been exposed to a data breach in the last two years. With the healthcare sector being one of the areas most likely to face a cyberattack, it is essential to protect your patient data.

HIPAA regulations require healthcare organizations to meet stringent security requirements.

But it’s not just those directly providing care; the HIPAA regulations apply to any company that carries patient data. This may include companies such as insurance companies and law firms.

In order to meet these requirements, many healthcare companies will make use of a managed service provider.

Managed service providers protect healthcare companies by carrying out full system audits, evaluating procedures, and looking for vulnerabilities that will open you up to potential attacks.

Because many managed service providers are used to handling the security of healthcare companies, you’ll get the right support to match compliance regulations.

With the healthcare sector coming under such heightened risk, it is essential that companies take every opportunity to minimize the risk of an attack. Data breaches can be costly.

Not only will a cyberattack cost you a loss of data, but it will mean that you incur fines for breaking HIPAA regulations. In addition, you will be more likely to lose patients or customers due to the breach.

A managed service provider will help you to develop a disaster recovery strategy. That way, if the worst does happen, you’ll be able to minimize the damage or recover lost data.

Modernizing Your Healthcare Companies IT Infrastructure will Save You Money

If your operations are still reliant on technology that was put in place a decade ago or more, then it won’t have been designed for the type and level of use that it is exposed to now. Modernizing your IT infrastructure is essential.

You will need to invest in several key areas. These include:

• Speeding up your networks

• Streamlining the services available to your employees

• Enhancing your storage facilities

• Improving the overall security of the entire system

BCMOne offers a range of solutions that will help improve your IT infrastructure. Not only this, but it will also help you to reduce your overall IT spending.

For more information on the services that we offer, and to find out how we can help your healthcare company, get in touch today.