Majority of healthcare providers lagging in their digital health readiness

Failing to invest in the right technologies at the right time can eventually force patients to look elsewhere for their health services. U.S. healthcare providers understand IT modernization is now a necessity in today’s increasingly digital- and mobile-driven world. Yet many providers admit they are nowhere near ready to deliver the level of secure digital and mobile health offerings today’s consumers expect.

Failing to invest in the right technologies at the right time can eventually force patients to look elsewhere for their health services. Clinicians, physicians and key staff move on to more competitive health systems. In turn, an organization may be forced to fold. In fact, that’s already happening.

“The larger institutions are going to lead the way in innovation, and smaller ones will piggyback off those solutions,” said Bellrock Intelligence CIO-COO Charlie Wilson. Bellrock Intelligence makes data analytics software used by healthcare insurers and hospitals.

Wilson’s comments are part of a new HIMSS Media report that examines healthcare providers’ digital health readiness—and why so many remain reluctant to adopt mobile, cloud computing and data analytics solutions now commonplace in more advanced health systems.

Findings are based on a HIMSS model to help healthcare providers assess their own digital health readiness. Once built, researchers asked 220 healthcare IT decision-makers and influencers about their organizations’ technology plans. Their responses to an online survey were then scored and placed within the model’s digital health continuum.