Are information silos hindering productivity at your healthcare organization?

Discover ways to overcome these barriers and increase collaboration at your healthcare organization.

Breaking down information silos can increase efficiency, lower costs and improve outcomes. But as you likely know, this is often far from reality. Although more integrated delivery networks (IDNs) and other healthcare organizations are aiming to increase communication and collaboration, departmental information silos still stand in the way.

In fact, Forbes[1] recently referred to data silos as a “deepflaw” in the healthcare system. While silos present a problem, they also present significant opportunity for healthcare organizations. Connecting information and departmental silos will improve collaboration, which directly impacts your hospital’s bottom line.

A McKinsey Global report[2] estimated that the efficient use of data in healthcare could create more than $300 billion in value every year.

Breaking down information silos

Eliminating these silos is a big opportunity for your healthcare organization to lower costs and improve outcomes. Here are some ways to get started:

• Establish remote access to clinical applications: Access to information regardless of location helps healthcare professionals stay agile and provide the best possible care — when and where it’s needed.

• Integrate information across different platforms: Streamline information and reduce redundancies to support more coordinated care.

• Employ document management and advanced scan-and-capture solutions. Convert paper to digital communications to help improve privacy and security.

• Optimize workflows. Assess where improvements can be made to increase efficiency in day-to-day operations, so you can work smarter and faster.

As organizations strive to achieve population health management and accountable care goals, it’s going to become even more important to find new ways to collaborate and integrate across systems. To do this, it’s key to deploy document management and advanced scan-and-capture solutions that let healthcare professionals access the information they need to do their jobs effectively. Whether working at their desk at headquarters or at their kitchen table at home — or whether the information is paper, fax or digital — access to that data is the one of the most crucial steps.

To reach maximum potential, healthcare professionals need to be able to collaborate with colleagues anywhere, any time. This means making enterprise information and data repositories available wherever and whenever they’re needed. When you break down silos by integrating platforms and devices across platforms in a standard language, as well as establish a centralized data warehouse, you can generate faster, more efficient and more accurate healthcare.