Why Healthcare Organizations and Professionals Should Embrace UCaaS
Unified Communications as a Service, also known as UCaaS, is a suite of applications that allow companies and healthcare organizations to communicate more efficiently, share files securely, and ultimately improve the delivery of care. Although options vary by provider and customer need, solutions generally consist of a hosted phone system, network management tools, conferencing, and collaboration tools.
Small, medium, and large healthcare providers and professionals have been increasingly adopting the hosted cloud model. However, there are now plenty of reasons for compliant and regulated industries, including healthcare, to get on board.
At LDI Connect, our Cloud Services division helps clients migrate to the cloud and implement UcaaS solutions to help companies stay collaborative and connected. In this article, we explain the top reasons why there has never been a better time for healthcare organizations to consider UCaaS.
FINANCIAL BENEFITS
UCaaS allows companies to move their voice investment from a capital expense to an operational expense and reallocate capital dollars to more strategic projects or investments. UCaaS provides a predictable monthly cost and, in many cases, bundles broadband, network, and related technology expenses.
In today’s business world, a fast-rising trend is to put services like security, software, data management, and analytics in the cloud for accessibility to create more scalability and flexibility. UCaaS is no exception to this trend, as it can easily replace costly investments in infrastructure and bulky on-premise hardware.
STRATEGIC ADVANTAGES
The “as a service” model supports automatic updates, meaning companies always have access to the latest features and upgrades with minimal downtime, allowing IT teams to focus on core initiatives. UCaaS can help ease the burden of the IT team while providing greater scalability for peak seasonality or disaster requirements.
EFFICIENCY
Many healthcare organizations and professionals are challenged by bridging the myriad of communications components into a single cohesive platform, such as voice, video, email, messaging, and conferencing. UCaaS provides a unified platform to connect all communications and ensures that they work seamlessly together.
This is potentially more critical in the healthcare field than any other because it could represent a life-or-death matter. Cloud collaboration improves the ability to communicate from multiple locations, supporting instant communication and telemedicine. Healthcare professionals can monitor critical medical cases, respond to emergencies, provide training, request additional support, or simply share ideas and best practices from nearly any location at any time.
INTEGRATION
Every industry requires support platforms and tools specifically designed for their professionals’ needs, such as nurse call systems, emergency paging, and patient-record software. Traditionally it has been difficult to integrate communications across these systems, and UCaaS is designed to integrate seamlessly with all of the platforms used in daily operations.
SECURITY
Security, in general, provides many challenges for many IT teams, not just in healthcare. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) regulations add another level of complexity to designing and securing a communications platform. Cloud communications providers supply high‐end, cloud-based security for each client to secure patient information and help IT meet stringent compliance requirements.
MOBILITY
Healthcare is a complex data‐driven industry where teams need to have the ability to collaborate and access information in real-time. Physicians and healthcare professionals no longer work at one hospital or location and are constantly on the move for what may be termed an “always-on” work scenario. Hosted cloud communications unify companies into a single manageable platform, allowing staff to be reached anywhere at nearly any time.
UCaaS for healthcare also improves the speed at which information can be shared. Consider how long it used to take to transfer vital patient records. Today’s healthcare teams need immediate access to patient histories so that proper, patient‐specific care can be administered. UCaaS and comprehensive electronic medical records (EMR) systems afford easy electronic access to patient records and critical care information. The information enables the healthcare team to get information and analyze critical details on the move.
READY FOR UCASS?
Healthcare companies that don’t consider making a move to cloud-based communications are at risk of being left behind by their competition, are less likely to be able to protect their data safely, and worse, are not likely to be able to optimize the delivery of patient services and patient care.
The Cloud Services Team at LDI Connect is here to make sure you implement the right UCaaS solution for your environment. Book a Meeting to learn more about our Cloud Services.
