I distinctly remember the first time I participated in a cloud computing demonstration back in 2010. Since then, cloud computing has come a long way, particularly within the healthcare vertical. In fact, it was cloud-to-edge technology that dominated our conversations in the Connection booth during HIMSS23. As healthcare organizations both large and small grapple with anemic budgets and an exhausted and skeletal IT staff, cloud computing can serve as a welcome reprieve to many of their common concerns. Cloud computing is, if you’ll indulge the pun, having its “day in the sun.”
The Cloud Can Help to Ease Common Concerns in Healthcare
The HIPAA Journal reports that, in March 2023, there were 63 health data breaches, exposing more than 6.3M individual healthcare records, an increase of almost 47% from February 2023. The cost of these breaches is nearly incalculable, and remediation efforts are made more difficult when compounded by pervasive staffing challenges across clinical, administrative, and technology personnel.
Healthcare IT Today editor John Lynn remarked in his HIMSS23 recap, “Biggest Themes from #HIMSS23,” the common concerns among the hospital C-suite weren’t surprising. He noted there aren’t enough clinicians to serve the needs of patients. And the doctors and nurses in front-line patient care are burned out and increasingly skeptical that IT can be part of the solution. Connection believes introducing cloud solutions, where they make sense, could prove the latter untrue.
This Kind of Pressure Can Also Bring Creative Solutions
Healthcare organizations are in year three of their end-point device lifecycle for laptops and desktops that were deployed during the pandemic. With no dedicated funding to plan replacement, these organizations are taking their fleet of X86-64-bit devices and repurposing those devices as thin clients. This isn’t a new, or especially groundbreaking idea, but healthcare organizations are embracing this cloud-forward approach.
Economic, staffing, and security benefits notwithstanding, healthcare clients share that cloud computing has caught up to the unique use cases commonly found in clinical environments: shared workstations, tap-and-go/single-sign-on, virtual care, billing and coding, patient registration kiosks, call centers, remote/hybrid work, and digital signage.
One simple implementation can have staggering effects, saving both time and lives. “The IGEL OS is highly secure and customizable, allowing us to quickly deploy for a variety of use cases,” said Jim Baeszler, Chief Information Officer of New Jersey-based care provider, Chelsea Senior Living. Mr. Baeszler continued, “We made the switch to IGEL to extend the useful life of existing hardware which has been even more valuable in the current environment of supply chain issues and rising new equipment prices.”
Connection’s Cloud Circle of Excellence is your partner-agnostic source for all cloud-enabled solutions. Visit our Cloud Services webpage or contact your Connection Account Team to discuss cloud computing options for your healthcare organization further.
Jennifer Johnson
Jennifer Johnson, Director Healthcare Strategy and Business Development, joined Connection in 2010 starting in field sales and joined the healthcare practice in 2015. Jennifer has more than 20 years in IT, including prior roles in distribution and manufacturing. Jennifer holds her Certified Digital Health Leader designation from the CHIME organization and is a member of HIMSS, where Connection is a diamond sponsor. Jen was named CRN Women of the Channel in 2023 and 2024 and holds certifications from NVIDIA (AI Advisor- Sales) and Dell Technologies (AI Champion- Partner Sales).
