Cloud migration satisfaction rates, compliance as a roadblock, and more results from a survey of 500 IT professionals in healthcare
Introduction
Cloud computing has experienced rapid adoption and has become a vital component to modern healthcare organizations. Shifting core on-premises processes and infrastructure to the cloud enables organizations to meet their patients where they are by providing:
- Improved patient and provider access to data
- More flexibility for accessing care
- Improved standards of care
- Increased security of stored data
- Improved data storage capacity
- More efficient management of system infrastructure
Many healthcare organizations have already shifted their operations to the cloud and immediately started seeing innumerable benefits.
However, systems administrators and executives that haven’t made the transition cite HIPAA compliance challenges as one of the most significant barriers to cloud adoption within the healthcare industry.
As a firm believer in the ability of cloud computing to empower industries of all kinds, we wanted to find out just how difficult making the transition and maintaining compliance was for organizations that have already made the leap. That way, healthcare organizations that haven’t migrated yet can assess their own needs and weigh them against current outcomes.
We surveyed employed IT professionals throughout the healthcare industry to determine the current state of cloud computing adoption, identified specific pain points for organizations that haven’t made the transition yet, and how well administrators have met these challenges.
Read on to learn more from our survey findings, and see how your healthcare business can benefit from improved efficiency and better outcomes through cloud computing.
Executive Summary
Methodology
We surveyed 500 actively-employed healthcare IT professionals from within the United States. All respondents were responsible for making IT decisions within their organization, and worked at one of the following types of healthcare-related businesses:
- Hospitals
- Doctor’s offices
- Specialty clinics
- Dental practices
- Health plans
- Health insurance agencies
- Healthcare clearinghouses
- Medicare / Medicaid
- Business associates to healthcare entities
- Other
Survey answers were collected in November 2022.
Current Cloud Adoption Rates Among Healthcare Organizations
A vast majority of healthcare organizations across industries have transitioned to the cloud. 70% of respondents have migrated to a cloud-based computing and storage infrastructure to store and update patient records, manage care plans, and provide more comprehensive access to data for both patients and providers.
Of those respondents who haven’t migrated, nearly 82% plan to migrate to the cloud within the following year. 90% plan to migrate within the next two years. Only 6% of respondents do not intend to migrate to the cloud.
Even so, many respondents who have adopted cloud technology still rely, at least in part, on legacy systems or archives in some capacity:
- 55% of organizations that use cloud computing still use paper records.
- 52% of organizations that use cloud computing use on-premises storage and computing.
Hospitals, networks, and providers have been among the first to jump to the
cloud, likely due to their ability to leverage internal resources. Of those already migrated respondents, 41% relied solely on internal teams and resources.
Smaller organizations that lack the knowledge or resources to make the transition on their own are looking for external solutions to aid migration once they decide to begin the process. Of those who haven’t migrated, 62% plan to involve a third-party contractor or consultant.
Most healthcare organizations are moving their data into either public cloud (37%) or private cloud (44%) environments, with very few opting for hybrid (18%) or multicloud (2%) environments.
Cloud Adoption by Organization Type
Survey results suggest that the greater the number of end-users an organization needs to manage, the greater the incentive to adopt a cloud computing and storage solution. Organizational adoption was highest in medicare/medicaid offices, hospitals, and clinics/agencies operating at scale. Smaller, independent businesses like doctor and dental offices have been the least likely to migrate to the cloud.
Medicare and Medicaid organizations are ahead of the pack regarding cloud migration. 91% of respondents who work for Medicare/Medicaid organizations currently rely on cloud computing and storage infrastructure.
This widespread adoption is likely due to advances made due to the HITECH Act of 2009, which aided in adopting digital solutions and healthcare IT. Because these either are government institutions or work directly with government institutions, they’re more likely to already have digital infrastructure in place.
90% of hospital employees surveyed have adopted cloud computing and storage infrastructure. The increase in large hospital networks and overall multi-disciplinary demands of day-to-day operations have likely spurred the need to transition to the cloud.
Doctor’s offices are some of the least likely to have transitioned to the cloud. 70% of doctor's office employees rely on paper records, and only 37% have implemented a cloud computing and storage infrastructure solution. This reluctance to migrate likely comes from a lack of resources and a need to preserve legacy systems and paperwork during the transition.
Dental practices rely heavily on a combination of on-premises storage and computing (100%) and paper records (85%). Only 23% have adopted cloud storage and computing infrastructure, likely due to a similar hesitancy and lack of resources that doctor’s offices face.
Difficulty of Manual Cloud Migration and Overall Satisfaction
From a distance, migrating to the cloud appears to be a complicated process. While migration certainly has challenges unique to every organization, data provided by those who have already switched to the cloud should assuage many of those concerns.
- Migration is easier than it looks: Cloud migration seems like a complex process if you’re just looking to get started, but responses suggest it’s not difficult. 74% of respondents said migrating the organization’s resources to the cloud was easy.
- The cloud offers better healthcare outcomes: Cloud computing adoption doesn’t just make life easier for IT professionals — it improves the quality of service for their patients. 89% of respondents cite an improved standard of care after migrating.
- Migration is worth doing: Cloud migration satisfaction rates are incredibly high among admins who have already made the transition. 86% of respondents are satisfied with their cloud storage and computing solution, and 94% of administrators that have moved to the cloud would recommend the switch to those still exclusively using on-premises solutions.
Administrators cited numerous benefits to their operations once they’ve transitioned to the cloud. Increased data storage capacity was the most significant benefit cited (58%). No benefit ranks lower than 40%, meaning healthcare organizations will likely find additional improvements beyond their initial reasons for making the transition. Other cited benefits to cloud migration include:
- Providing a better experience for caregivers (54%)
- Providing better services for patients (51%)
- Flexible data access (51%)
- Improving network performance (50%)
- Better security and compliance (44%)
- Scaling network resources (40%)
Compliance in the Cloud, During and Post-Migration
The most common barrier administrators cited to begin cloud migration was difficulty achieving compliance at 57%. No other concern even remotely comes close.
While these organizations are understandably concerned about ensuring compliance in a cloud environment, they believe that they’ll be better prepared to manage patient data once the transition is complete. Of these respondents, 84% say it would be easier to secure protected health information with a cloud-based solution.
Organizations that have made the jump want to dispel these fears. Of those who have already migrated, 71% said ensuring compliance during and after the migration was easy.
Once transitioned, the worries of maintaining compliance on the cloud seem to melt away. 88% report more easily maintaining compliance in the cloud than on-premises hosting. Professionals surveyed from all types of healthcare organizations shared this sentiment.
Takeaways
Cloud computing adoption is prominent throughout the healthcare industry and continues to expand. Organizations that haven’t made the transition yet will most likely do so within the next two years and will likely seek out aid from third-party tools and services.
While maintaining HIPAA compliance is cited as the number one concern among healthcare organizations that haven’t migrated to the cloud, it is significantly easier to maintain compliance with a cloud-based solution than with current on-premises solutions. Organizations that choose to move to the cloud will achieve improved standards of care while maintaining the robust policies necessary to achieve compliance.
About DuploCloud
DuploCloud is an all-in-one DevOps-as-a-Service platform that enables developers to automate infrastructure provisioning and cloud orchestration with built-in security and compliance configurations. Reduce bottlenecks, enable developer self-service, and easily spin up instances that meet PCI-DSS, HIPAA, SOC 2, and GDPR specifications. Plus, organizations can gain peace of mind with ongoing compliance monitoring and audit-ready reporting. DuploCloud enables teams of all sizes across industries to deploy cloud-native applications ten times faster and reduce operational costs by 75%.
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