CDW Healthcare's Vital STATs Survey Highlights the Conflicted Priorities of Healthcare IT
Study of Healthcare IT Professionals Finds 92 Percent of Providers Recognize IT's Role in Improving Patient Care But Dedicate Insufficient Resources to Maintaining IT Infrastructure
VERNON HILLS, Ill. - February 26, 2008 - CDW Healthcare, part of the of the public sector subsidiary of CDW and a leading provider of technology solutions to healthcare organizations, today announced the results of Vital STATs 2008, a nationwide survey of more than 400 healthcare IT professionals. The survey found that although healthcare IT professionals continue to respond to the increased demand for clinical and financial solutions across the enterprise, they place little emphasis on the supporting IT infrastructure, risking unreliable performance and low end-user satisfaction.
"In their drive to improve patient care and streamline business processes, many healthcare organizations often emphasize the importance of end-user applications and not investing the needed resources into the supporting infrastructure," said Bob Rossi, senior director for CDW Healthcare. "As a result, healthcare IT professionals face an unenviable task: deliver maximum capability to caregivers with minimal investment in IT architecture upgrades. IT professionals are so frustrated with this contradiction that the majority of respondents rated the healthcare industry's IT infrastructure as significantly worse than other industries."
The survey found that the use of technology supporting clinical and financial solutions is gaining traction facility-wide, placing increasing demands on the existing IT infrastructures. For example, by 2009, 54 percent of respondent organizations will leverage an automated claims processing platform, while 79 percent of respondents noted their organization has implemented a PACs solution - with notable penetration into multiple clinical departments, including cardiology (41 percent), emergency rooms (39 percent) and operating suites (33 percent). The growing scope of these implementations is taxing the IT infrastructure of many providers: 41 percent of IT executives indicate that IT's reliability is challenged by rising support costs and/or reliability issues.
Conflicted funding priorities have resulted in equally mixed perceptions among healthcare IT executives. Although 92 percent of respondents report that their organization recognizes IT as an integral component in improving patient care, 40 percent believe that the healthcare industry's IT infrastructure is worse than other industries. Thirty percent of respondents say that the healthcare industry's infrastructure is on par with other industries, while only 27 percent rate it as better.
One area in which providers have demonstrated significant progress is in the adoption of technology to improve energy efficiency and system reliability. By 2009, 57 percent of organizations plan to actively pursue energy-efficient IT and recycling practices, and 46 percent of respondent organizations have already transitioned to blade-based server configurations to lower operating costs and enhance system uptime. Virtualization initiatives are paying dividends as well: 81 percent of IT professionals involved in a server virtualization project indicate a perceived increase in the efficient use of server resources.
When asked to identify the IT services that would provide the greatest benefit to their organization, IT professionals placed desktop lifecycle management near the top of their list (38 percent). Additionally, 75 percent of respondent organizations' current or future environmental IT programs include desktop/hardware replacement.
Methodology
Vital STATs 2008 findings are based on an online survey of 1,345 IT professionals, of which 410 work for providers with 100 patient beds or greater. The study has a +/- 4.8 percent margin of error at a 95 percent confidence level.
For more information, or to download the study, please visit www.cdwg.com/vitalstats.
About CDW Healthcare
CDW Healthcare, part of the public sector subsidiary of CDW Corporation, is a leading provider of technology products and services focused exclusively on healthcare organizations. Working in partnership with customers ranging from small rural providers to large and complex integrated delivery networks, CDW Healthcare responds with a sense of urgency to customer technology needs, delivering best-in-class solutions from top-name brands such as IBM, HP, Cisco, Microsoft, Planar, EMC, Fujitsu, Symantec, Motion, Lenovo, Xerox and Lexmark. CDW Healthcare account management teams build strong relationships with more than 15,000 healthcare provider organizations nationwide by responding to customer IT infrastructure requirements with in-depth advice, technical expertise and the best technology that the industry has to offer. For more information about CDW Healthcare offerings, procurement options, services and solutions, call 1.800.410.4239, or visit the CDW Healthcare Web site at http://www.cdwhealthcare.com.
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