Becker's Hospital Review

49 Executive Briefing: Information Management stand the technology and processes in place throughout the health network, but it is also important to develop a strategy for their in- tegration and consolidation as the health systems merge. With the proliferation of different applications and strategies throughout the health network, this effort becomes even more challenging. In any merger situation, a critical first step is to conduct a thor- ough system-wide assessment throughout the health network. The assessment should cover the breadth of health information issues, including the records and health information processes that impact costs, care and the organization's goals. The follow- ing recommended strategies have been utilized at health systems across North America to help guide the assessment and facilitate the merger and acquisition process: Review your vendor portfolio, and determine what you're spending — both where and why. Do you have multiple health information management vendors duplicating efforts and costs? Having multiple vendors is not only costly in dollars but also puts an unnecessary strain on worker productivity. In the world of healthcare, decentralization has been the tradi- tion. In comparison to corporate entities, healthcare organizations have been departmentally organized. The IT department has traditionally focused on core infrastructure, while clinical depart- ments looked after their own technology, creating silos throughout the health network. With silos come complexity, inefficiency and increased cost. Subsequently, as it relates to information man- agement, each department has their own systems and applica- tions with their own storage administration, expense structure, and maintenance obligations. There is certainly an opportunity to streamline this approach and reduce cost. By consolidating vendors, you can get a number of benefits. Your initial strategy may be to get consistency across some of the key information management functions, including ar- chiving, retention and destruction, that have proliferated that across the health system. But a more powerful approach is to have con- sistency across these applications — with a centralized shared ser- vices model — so you have a uniform approach to your information management across functions, departments and processes. Benefits of a Streamlined Information Management Approach • Decreased costs though enhanced pricing and reduced vendor management • Reduced staffing needed to perform information manage- ment functions • Enhanced information recovery times – eliminating the need to search for records across multiple systems and better supporting audit and litigation requests • Increased consistency in policies and processes • Improved compliance of e-discovery and legal hold requests VITAL INFORMATION IS EVERYTHING With mergers and acquisitions driving the rapid growth of information across your health system, it is vital that you have visibility and access – across format or location. Learn how you can get consistency, improve access, enable information governance, and enhance patient care. ironmountain.com/healthinsights © 2014 Iron Mountain Incorporated. All rights reserved. Iron Mountain and the design of the mountain are registered trademarks of Iron Mountain Incorporated in the U.S. and other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

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