Electronic health records (EHRs) are just the beginning. Smartphone apps for diagnostic tools and
video consultations are decentralizing delivery of
care, while hospitals transition to new cloud-based
administrative and analytics systems. As patients
become more comfortable with new technologies
and organizations look to control costs, IT spending is rising and projects are multiplying—putting
project leaders in the spotlight.
Global healthcare IT spending is projected to grow
26 percent between 2015 and 2020, according to
Technavio, as organizations pursue patient benefits
and the bottom line.
“Technology has been a huge enabler of
change,” says David Denov, PMP, senior manager,
National Health Services practice, PMI Global
Executive Council member Deloitte, Toronto,
Ontario, Canada.
EHRs alone are expected to save the global
healthcare industry US$78 billion worldwide
between 2014 and 2019, according to Juniper
Research. Implementing EHRs tends to improve
care and patient safety as well: Organizations
report increases in physician collaboration and
reductions in medical errors. A 2016 survey
by the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society found that 83 percent of
organizations with advanced EHR environments
report improvements in clinical staff’s performance quality.
But if the ROI on healthcare IT projects is
clear, so are the risks. In Boston, Massachusetts,
USA, a US$47 million EHR implementation at
Brigham and Women’s Hospital came in US$27
million over budget in 2015 due in large part to
system coding errors.
INTEGRATION OF HEALTHCARE AND
HIGH-TECH IS ACCELERATING.
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