MHC Annual Outsourcing Survey - More companies outsourcing IT functions: survey
Source: By: Jean DerGurahian, Modern Healthcare, October 2, 2007
...... The increase represents a behavioral change as the healthcare industry turns to IT to improve communications, transparency, patient flow and data management, said John Lovelock, analyst and director of healthcare research at Gartner.
...... That perception shift has led more companies to turn to outsourced IT functions, according to results from Modern Healthcare's annual Outsourcing Survey. In its 29th year, the survey is a nonscientific look at healthcare outsourcing trends as reported by companies that provide on-site management to hospital departments, long-term-care facilities and alternate sites such as clinics and physician group practices. Fifty-five companies responded to this year's survey, up from 37 last year, and the number of clients increased across a range of services.
Information systems, which saw a 13% increase in the number of healthcare facilities served over last year on the survey, moved to 10th from 13th in the ranking of department categories.
Hospitals are increasingly relying on their contractors to provide even higher levels of service that help facilities comply with quality standards, especially as the healthcare environment opens to greater scrutiny by consumers and regulators. In many cases, that comes in the form of outsourced information technology, Lovelock said.