“The passage of the Federal stimulus package has revitalized the dialogue surrounding expansive applications such as electronic health records and other point of care solutions,” said Bob Rossi, vice president, healthcare sales for CDW Healthcare. “While these solutions can assist caregivers in improving clinical outcomes, an inadequate supporting infrastructure can decrease applications’ ability to operate reliably both within and among healthcare organizations. Providers should recognize that the ability of clinicians to achieve critical benefits – such as improved patient safety, increased patient satisfaction and reduced operating costs – is greatly enhanced with infrastructure and easy-to-adopt client technologies that span from the data center to the patient bedside.”

Infrastructure Matters
The survey found that IT professionals in healthcare organizations view clinical applications as having a greater impact on patient care than infrastructure: 67 percent of respondents described applications as “critical” to patient care compared to only 50 percent of respondents who viewed infrastructure with the same importance. Despite the focus on the application, hospitals taking a balanced approach and devoting 40 percent or more of their IT budget to infrastructure expansion reap sizable rewards: 71 percent of providers with balanced infrastructure investments report “outstanding” performance from their clinical applications versus only 29 percent of providers who devote fewer resources to infrastructure. Compared to healthcare organizations who de-emphasize infrastructure, hospitals who perceive infrastructure as “critical” to quality patient care report reduced operating costs more frequently (57 percent vs. 41 percent) and increased patient satisfaction (50 percent vs. 36 percent).

At the same time, healthcare IT professionals often focus on application features and functions while focusing less on the client technologies that will speed caregiver adoption. When implementing clinical applications, providers cite product features such as clinical capability and cost (59 percent and 50 percent, respectively) as top concerns, with only 30 percent of respondents identifying interoperability and 26 percent identifying ease of caregiver adoption as important attributes. Consequently, among providers who have already deployed applications, primary challenges included excessive helpdesk calls and prolonged user training (46 percent), significant lag times during clinical usage (28 percent), lack of interoperability (28 percent) and unreliable performance (21 percent).

“With the pressure mounting to generate quality improvements and return on investment, the cost and capability of clinical applications are obviously important concerns for any healthcare provider,” said Rossi. “However, the interoperability of applications as well as the ease with which those technologies are adopted by caregivers are the factors that truly drive long-term business and clinical value. Until providers devote sufficient resources to resolving these issues, they will continue to suffer from sub-optimal application performance, frustrated clinicians and an IT staff besieged with helpdesk calls.”

Additionally, respondents realized business benefits across a number of infrastructure deployments, including:

• Virtualization: Providers with server virtualization are nearly twice as likely to experience reduced operating costs as those hospitals which have not employed virtualization – 61 percent to 30 percent, respectively
• Power and Cooling: Respondents with branch circuit protection solutions are more likely to experience reduced operating costs than hospitals which have not employed power optimization – 67 percent to 41 percent, respectively
• Network Management: Hospitals managing all networks internally are nearly twice as likely to experience reduced operating costs than those who outsource all network management – 51 percent to 27 percent, respectively
• Telemedicine: Hospitals employing patient/caregiver videoconferencing are more likely to experience reduced operating costs (55 percent) versus those that do not (39 percent)

Methodology
IT Checkup findings are based on an online survey of 500 clinical and IT professionals working in the hospital setting. The study has a +/-4.33 percent margin of error at a 95 percent confidence level.

For more information on CDW Healthcare’s IT Checkup and to download the complete study, please visit www.cdwg.com/itcheckup.

About CDW Healthcare
CDW Healthcare is a leading provider of technology solutions focused exclusively on serving the healthcare marketplace. Working closely with more than 15,000 healthcare organizations nationwide, its customers range from small rural providers to large integrated delivery networks. The dedicated healthcare team leverages the expertise of CDW technology specialists and engineers to deliver best-in-class solutions from data center infrastructure through to point of patient care. The company’s technology specialists and engineers offer expertise in designing customized solutions, while its advanced technology engineers can assist customers with the implementation and long-term management of those solutions. Areas of focus include notebooks, desktops, printers, servers and storage, unified communications, security, wireless, power and cooling, networking, software licensing and mobility solutions.