Black Book’s year-end healthcare C-suite survey revealed that organizations are slowing down on advanced software acquisitions due to political and funding uncertainty that is menacing long term strategies.
Indeed, policy changes in the wake of a full or partial repeal of Obamacare may create new demands on healthcare enterprises that will likely divert capital and resources toward getting ready for value-based care. This uncertainty, as recognized by 9 of 10 hospital leaders surveyed, will at a best decelerate decision-making on planned or ongoing initiatives, and at worst drain IT investment dollars for a protracted period of time, according to Doug Brown, Managing Partner of Black Book.
The survey revealed 82 percent of CIOs, 91 percent of CFOs and 83 percent of CEOs agree it’s also an opportunity to get their technology ducks in a row.
Survey findings disclosed the acquisition of disparate systems has also produced a rising demand for revenue cycle management (RCM) outsourcing and strategic and operational IT consulting services. Population health and analytics initiatives have exposed the need to bolster the basics of value-based care preparation, the survey found.
Black Book’s below nine short-range healthcare IT trends impacting providers, vendors and payers likely extending through the first half of 2017 require preparation, and executives are regrouping to take a deeper look at organizational infrastructures, the researchers concluded.
- Technology budgets stagnate, purchases through Q2 largely will be based on current business need.
- Electronic data warehouses (EDW) move to the top of short-term priorities.
- Renewed and upgraded enterprise resource planning systems (ERP) swings back into importance, now for value-based care costing.
- Financially stable, regional IDNs are spending big dollars toward extended connectivity while the rest of the pack looks on.
- Providers keep watch and wait for large scale healthcare cyber attacks before forming a better defense.
- Hype around the cloud quiets down as it becomes the primary way to build enterprise architecture.
- Focus on front-end and middle office business office functions, and RCM outsourcing intensifies.
- Skilled hospital tech staff recruitment is even more challenging.
- Interest in precision medicine initiatives continue but few have commitments to buy for first half of the New Year.
The nine trends can be read in full detail here.
