High Score Labs News   •   March 4, 2020

The healthcare industry is growing at an ever-increasing rate due to the increased life expectancy and the large number of people entering into retirement. In the US healthcare and social assistance sectors are expected to become the largest employing sector over the next decade.

Given the increasing amount of work in this field, it makes sense to consider using offshore and nearshore resources to take on support tasks, especially IT.

According to Black Book Survey, 2015, 73% of large US hospitals and health care systems have chosen to use outsourcing partners for technology solutions; from application development to infrastructure services. 81% of small hospitals planned to use outsourcing services.

Healthcare IT Outsourcing Market was estimated to have grown to $50.4B, from $35 Billion in 2013 with CAGR 7.6%. There are many benefits to outsourcing work, especially support work in IT. Here are 3 main reasons why

Increasing the quality of patient care
Delegating support roles and tasks to an outsourcing partner allows healthcare organizations to focus on the quality of patient care. New treatment methodologies, implementation of new technologies to support better health care and overall more time to grow your institution.

Cost optimization
Cost savings is always a concern, especially in healthcare. Companies who chose outsourcing partners will often notice that it is easier to optimize operations and it will notice that it reduces costs in the required support of an IT infrastructure. According to Forrester Research, companies can save up to 25% in cost by using an offshore outsourcing provider.
According to Black Book Survey, 90% of hospitals in Q3 2015 noticed they are at or near an immediate (3 months or less) return on their investment for IT outsourcing.

Reduced expenditures in training
Qualified specialists usually require training to learn new skills and maintain existing ones. Outsourcing training to trusted partners can help reduce cost and when properly orchestrated, increase the professional level of the training.

The most common and interesting candidate for outsourcing for healthcare includes items like software and application development, CMS implementation, CRM implementation, management, automation of processes using RPA for example and cloud-solutions. Choosing the correct outsourcing partners can certainly help maintain professional level of delivery and work within existing budgets.

Two things to consider before making the move
First, do your homework. Consider several potential partners before committing to anything. They should have a track record of other successful engagements. Ask questions on how do they manage the work? Communicate issues with the team, onshore and offshore? Do they have flexibility around the time zone difference? Also, how will you manage it? This is important because you cannot just give them the work and walk away expecting that it will all work out. There needs to be a small team of management on your side that can help keep the partner focused and accountable for high quality deliveries.

The second issue can be of confidentiality, especially in the EU or the US which have very strict rules regarding privacy and PMI. You would want to talk with the potential partner to determine how they manage such regulations and present proof of previous engagements. Some health care providers will often require that the team only works in their environment through either virtual machine workstations and VPN connections. This is certainly something that you would want to discuss with your IT security team beforehand.

Today is the new age of healthcare services. Patients have a wide spectrum of choice when it comes to what healthcare provider they will use, making the industry more competitive. Partnering with outsourcing companies can help healthcare organizations free up time and money to improve their quality of service, helping you stand out as unique. After all, almost 84% of US hospitals who had chosen to work with outsourcing partners said they were satisfied with the results and their overall experience exceed expectations.

At High Score Labs, we have years of experience, not only IT systems, but we also have experience working with the health care industry. We would love the opportunity to work with you!

Contact us today!