Healthcare providers in the United States have growing IT budgets as data collection and automation are becoming more important in the space, according to a Healthcare Innovation report.
Here are five key notes, with statistics from a new IDC Health Insights report:
1. Nearly half — 40 percent — of healthcare providers in the United States report increasing IT budgets.
2. Factors driving the budget swell include:
• Growth in analytics
• Patient engagement
• Customer relationship management
• Security
3. A quarter of the providers with growing budgets report electronic health records as the main source of their IT budget growth.
4. More healthcare providers are looking to optimize business for accountable care organizations with added analytics and care management. They are moving away from massive "enterprise EHR projects," according to the report.
5. Compared to previous years, providers are more likely to use cloud implementations and leverage mobile and analytics capabilities in the cloud than before.
6. Half of the software spend growth is in on-premise investments and 18 percent of new software spend goes to software as a service.
7. Forty-one percent of the respondents report being more comfortable with the cloud this past year than in 2014. However, there are still barriers to adoption including comfort level with security and compliance.
8. Cybersecurity is a new growth area for the IT budget and is expected to grow among healthcare organizations this year to include projects for monitoring the environment and controlling shadow IT.