The Cost of Technology in Hospitals

Electronic health records, online patient portals that allow patients to view their personal health information, make payments, and schedule appointments online, as well as the costs to upgrade and maintain these systems, are just a few contributors to significant increases in healthcare technology costs.

• 40% of US healthcare providers report that their IT and technology budgets are growing.
• The current annual overall healthcare provider spend on IT programs is $40 million.
• Clinical healthcare IT spending alone was $18.9 billion in 2015.
• Healthcare big data is expected to grow 42% in 2019.
• Technology costs at physician-owned multi-specialty practices have increased by more than 40% since 2009. In 2015, such practices spent more than $32,500 per full-time physician on information technology equipment, staff, maintenance, and other related expenses – IT staff expenses alone have escalated by nearly 47% per full-time physician since 2009.

Hospitals and healthcare systems are faced with the increasing challenge of effectively budgeting for the rapid technology and IT growth as they need to enhance technology for analytics, cybersecurity, ACO integrations, telehealth, and more.
Through our vast experience performing healthcare technology cost reduction and gathering front-line insights from CIOs and technology management leaders, VIE Healthcare® has identified a few areas which negatively impact a hospital’s technology budget:
Suboptimal and underperforming technology
Hospitals rely on technology to serve its purpose, but if the technology does not perform well, it puts a strain on the organization’s resources, potentially resulting in loss of business revenue.
Non-performing technology
Hospitals are being charged for maintenance agreements and/or software licenses before the go-live date, so they are paying for technology and systems that have yet to go live. Click To Tweet
Duplicate technology
In our experience, health system mergers and acquisitions can often lead to under-utilization and duplicate technology and software. We can carry out the work and correct these issues for you.
Incorrect pricing and utilization
VIE Healthcare® provides pricing and utilization reviews to protect our clients from overspending and to secure the best pricing in a competitive marketplace.
What are you doing to keep a pulse on your technology costs?