Posted By Fuller Harvey On March 8, 2018
Public Health and Behavioral Health Agencies in Dark Ages with Fear of The Cloud
Too many public health and behavioral health agencies are paralyzed by fear in making the jump to cloud-based Healthcare Information Technology (HIT), and find themselves subsequently stuck in the Dark Ages, while agencies around them are zooming light-years ahead into this New Age of Enlightenment.
Some of fear-based reasons for not switching can be seen in:
- Complacency
- Staying with “the devil you know”
- Overwhelm (expressed as inability to select an EHR), and
- (Fill in the blank: whatever your reason is!)
As growing discussion occurs at the governmental level for guidelines and implementation of a Healthcare Interoperability Exchange, it would behoove agencies which are dragging their feet to face their fears and get going with some form of cloud-based Electronic Health Record (EHR) system. Don’t allow fear of the unknown suddenly to morph into complete isolation and being left behind as the rest of the healthcare world experiences the ease of sharing information SAFELY and SECURELY with a click of a button.
What are the fears your particular agency (or executive director or governing board) is allowing to maintain the “Dark Ages” Status Quo of: paper and more paper, outdated information, payment mistakes and delays, inability to get reports and inability to participate in any exchange of information? Read on, and rise up, and vanquish those fear-mongering cloud-based EHR dragons!
Perhaps the fear is that information stored on the cloud would be more easily hacked? Chris France, in “Top 10 Fears of Migrating to the Cloud”, offers this more “enlightened” response to that Dark Age thinking: “Most small/medium businesses have barely enough IT staff to keep things running, let alone a team of individuals working on security. They don’t stand a chance against a team of hackers. With the cloud, you get the benefit of a team of security professionals without having to have them on your payroll. We employ the best security practices by buying in bulk, automating our processes, and watching things 24 x 7. This does not mean that a cloud is bullet-proof, but it does mean you have a higher probability of preventing attacks or if you do experience a hack, you are back up and running quicker.“
As Dale Carnegie said: “Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy.”
The top EHR providers are expert dragon slayers, putting the precise dragon-slaying swords in your hands.
One day every fear will be faced and vanquished, and you and your agency will be compliant to federal requirements of Meaningful-Use. Your clients’ records will be real-time updated, and insurance claims will be filed with an accuracy and timeliness which will be a cause for great feasting and rejoicing.
In that lovely fear-free zone, you’ll realize that your information is not only secure, real-time accessible and manageable, you’ll realize that the Dark Ages are – finally! – left behind. You’ll find yourself stepping at light-warp speed beyond the Age of Enlightenment into Twenty-first Century Cloud Nirvana. Fear, CONQUERED. Dragon, SLAIN.