No one understands the need for efficiency better than those in the Healthcare Industry. Healthcare institutions are increasingly aware of growing demands to reduce costs, improve client experience, foster streamlined communication, increase flexibility, and ensure HIPAA compliance and security. Many basic email and messaging tools available today still don't meet HIPAA standards, and remain insecure.
Cost easily and quickly pile up. For Healthcare Institutions, it is essential to be sure of the ROI before implementing a new service or technology. Cloud seems to be the future for almost all types of organizations, but for healthcare, there is little room for risk. With Microsoft, there is full support for the Healthcare Industry, with tools that allow meetings to occur online, avoid costly breaches of security, and increase employee productivity. Institutions can eliminate on-premise servers and licenses, reduce utility costs, eliminate storage costs, saved time on updates and installations.
Healthcare employees are constantly on the move, be it from floor to floor, facility to facility, or out of the office with clients or at labs, and they must be able to stay connected in a fast, easy, and secure way. Cloud applications allow team members to access any information they need, at any time, from any location. Administrators can designate user permissions based on document sensitivity, and user seniority. Users can work offline and sync their data when they are later connected if necessary. Cloud applications such as Office 365 also offer far superior security to paper records, and offer a high level of flexibility, giving businesses the ability to scale up or down as demands change.
Communication is key, and Microsoft makes it easier than ever to maintain communication in a streamlined and efficient way. With apps like Skype, OneDrive, SharePoint, and Teams, collaboration is simple and positively impacts productivity. Whether it is to chat, video conference, manage calendars and appointments, email, or day-to-day operations, it can be done with Microsoft. Face to face meetings can slow down efficiency and navigate time away from more essential tasks. Technology allows health professionals to get the most out of their day.
Clients expect more out of their providers, and they expect them to keep up with the ever-evolving technology innovations. Clients want to be able to Skype with providers, book appointments online and be able to get organized with digital assistants like Siri, Cortana, and Alexa. Healthcare institutions are reevaluating the way they interact with their patients virtually, while still maintaining the most important aspect of healthcare: personal relationships and connections. With Microsoft applications, health professionals can share patient records, capture medical histories, store screening and tests, and track relationships across clinics. And all of these can be done securely and easily with Microsoft cloud, ensuring more effective client experience and satisfaction.
Most healthcare organizations know that a breach of security is not an "if" but a "when." Medical documents are highly sensitive and very vulnerable to theft. Since HIPAA was introduced in 1996, patients have more control of their personal data, and healthcare institutions are held accountable for infractions. Violation fines range from $100 to $50,000 per violation, per year, and in 2017 fines reached almost $20,000,000 total.
Microsoft is one of the most secure cloud service providers, with added compliance capability, improved threat protection, tracking of unusual activity, and information rights management. Office 365 cloud infrastructure is monitored 24/7, with multi-factor authentication, encryption, threat management, and file/data integrity prevent or detect any tampering of data. Once you configure Office 365 to meet your compliance needs, you can safely transmit sensitive patient data such as names, e-mail addresses, documents, and more within and outside your organization in accordance with local, state, and federal laws. Microsoft has prepared user guides on how to set up HIPAA compliance in Office 365.
The Healthcare industry has a lot of hurdles to jump when it comes to the requirements of the business and the needs of clients. Cloud services like Microsoft allow companies in the healthcare industry to reduce costs, while still increasing productivity and efficiency. With the top of the line security, Healthcare institutions can avoid costly security breaches and focus on their mission to improve lives and help their clients.