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Health Data Archiving Reduces Costs: Find Out Why
If your healthcare organization is on the fence about archiving its data, there are plenty of compelling reasons to consider this option more seriously. Health data archiving reduces costs, simplifies data conversion and release of information processes, and supports patient care. Further, by storing past records in a web-based vendor-agnostic system, you can access historical health data and protected health information from a variety of legacy systems more efficiently. This frees up valuable storage space and reduces IT expenses.
For many organizations, the cost-saving benefits that can come with archiving healthcare data are the most appealing. With that in mind, we will discuss precisely how health data archiving reduces costs.
Health Data Archiving Reduces Costs: Find Out Why
Here are five ways data archiving solutions can help your healthcare organization save money:
Reduced IT expenses
By merging disparate legacy systems into a single archive and decommissioning those systems, your organization can benefit from significant cost reductions. The software used for archiving is much less costly than legacy systems which can be obsolete within a few years. It also eliminates the need to invest in multiple systems to accommodate different types of data.
Improved record retention
Having all of your records stored in one place makes it easier to comply with regulations surrounding long-term data retention and record-keeping requirements. This also prevents potential fines or penalties due to noncompliance. Unfortunately, these costs can not only be hefty but can also put organizations at risk of losing their accreditation.
HIPAA violations are sorted into tiers, with tier 4 violations being the most serious and costly—up to $50,000 per violation). These costs can quickly add up, considering the OCR could multiply these penalties by the number of days a covered healthcare entity violated HIPAA laws.
As this article from HIPAA Journal explains, “The general factors that can affect the amount of the financial penalty also include prior history, the organization’s financial condition, and the level of harm caused by the violation.”
Elimination of legacy systems
Because all records are stored securely in an archive, there’s no need to keep legacy systems or maintain outdated hardware. This eliminates the cost of supporting and updating these older systems – freeing up resources which can be used elsewhere in the organization.
Legacy systems are notoriously expensive to maintain and often require costly upgrades or replacements as technology advances. Organizations can eliminate these systems and the associated expenses by switching to an archiving system.
Reduced space requirements
Archiving data reduces physical storage needs, eliminating the need for additional space and associated costs such as rent and utilities. These are valuable–and expensive–resources that can be better used elsewhere in the organization – freeing up valuable capital that can be put to more effective use.
Increased efficiency
Often, archiving healthcare data allows organizations to streamline processes and reduce paperwork. This leads to increased efficiency, improved patient care, faster turnaround times for requests and releases of information, and ultimately – lower costs.
The Costs of Archiving vs. Migrating Healthcare Data
Understanding the difference between archiving and migrating healthcare data is also helpful in the context of this conversation.
Migrating healthcare data is a process of moving data from one information system to another. It allows organizations to transfer patient records from legacy systems, including Electronic Health Records (EHRs), into a new, more modern system. Healthcare data migration serves an incredibly important purpose. However, it isn’t always the best (or most economical) option.
Archiving, on the other hand, involves transferring historical patient data stored in EHRs into an archive so it can be quickly accessed if needed in the future. This eliminates the need for costly migrations as all data is stored securely, and protected health information is never sent outside of your organization.
By understanding how health data archiving reduces costs, healthcare organizations can take advantage of this technology’s many benefits. From simplifying data conversion processes to eliminating the need for costly migrations – archiving data is an efficient and cost-effective solution that can help organizations save time and money in the long run.
However, cost-savings are just some of the benefits associated with health data archiving.
Other Benefits of Health Data Archiving
Along with cost-savings, archiving healthcare data also offers several other benefits.
These include:
- Increased security: All records are stored securely in the archive. This makes it much easier to comply with HIPAA regulations. This ensures patient data is protected from unauthorized access or manipulation while allowing quick retrieval when needed.
- Improved accessibility: Records can be accessed according to your organization’s specific security protocols, providing a more streamlined and efficient process for anyone who needs to access this data.
- Ease of use: Archiving solutions are easy to implement and use, especially with professional healthcare data archiving services.
So, why wait? Investing in health data archiving solutions now could be one of your organization’s best investments. Contact Two Point today to learn more about how our comprehensive archiving solutions can help you reduce costs, streamline processes, and improve patient care.
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