Hospitals spend more than ten percent of their budget on medications. All healthcare facilities must closely manage medication inventory to reduce costs and allocate more budget to other investments. One way to ensure savings is by reducing medication-related problems. Ensuring accurate and timely doses means avoiding adverse patient outcomes, racking up quite a bill for medical facilities. One way to monitor dosages is by keeping a detailed medication log.
Sometimes, though, the error does not come from the end-user but the facilities. Even if patients track their medication, miscommunication could still occur at other levels. Lack of inventory management and monitoring leads to billions of dollars lost to readmissions and medication shortages or diversions. One way to respond to this is by using cloud-based data to lower costs.
How facilities use data intelligence in healthcare
Healthcare providers are not new to leveraging technology for patient care, improving efficiency, and securing compliance. Many hospitals have moved their data to the cloud, but some are still hesitant to do so. Cloud-based data lets healthcare practitioners view lab results or consult notes, enabling doctors, nurses, and pharmacists to collaborate better on treatment plans. This practice lets institutions cut down on paperwork and streamline workflows.
Cloud-based solutions let you track the medication supply chain from the wholesaler to the patient. It enables you to manage costs while improving patient care, which is a win-win for everyone involved.
Why aren’t some healthcare facilities sold on it?
Despite the apparent benefits of cloud-based medication management, not all facilities implement it. The most frequently cited concerns involve costs and security compliance. Hospitals and health centers want to be sure that this technology is worth it, and they don’t want to risk resources or patient data privacy.
News of recent technological advancements should allay healthcare providers’ fears. Cloud systems have stringent security features today, ones that actively combat attacks, keep data safe, and adhere to strict security and compliance standards. Today, your cloud-based solution comes with intrusion detection and secure harbor compliance controls, and their data centers are HIPAA-certified before deployment.
The benefits of using cloud-based management systems
There are other benefits to cloud-based administrative solutions. One notable advantage is that these online tools require no capital investment in servers, hardware, and data centers. A cloud solution lets your team focus on serving patients who need medication-assisted therapy and manage the pharmacy instead of the IT system. Your clinical team will have immediate and remote access to inventory when you have this kind of system in place.
Your pharmacists will be able to understand and identify anomalies in the inventory and prepare for trends. With cloud solutions, they can eliminate diversion risks, which reduces stock-outs and waste. They wouldn’t need to order more than needed, which improves business results for the whole organization.
In addition to these, this type of inventory management allows them to build excellent operational practices. When these tools are in place, they can share critical insights with key individuals like primary care teams and executives.
Conclusion
Health systems and pharmacies do not have to worry about security patches and upgrades when using cloud-based solutions. Furthermore, this type of management system provides predictive and prescriptive analytics and a way to identify current diversion risks, which is vital to ensuring intelligent medication management.
Sound monitoring practices should not end with the healthcare facility. Make sure your loved one gets the right doses at the right time with MedManage. This medication tracker app lets the patient or their caregiver create a list, alerts, and a log tracking how well they adhere to their medication schedule. Download the app today, available for Android and iOS users, or get in touch with us for more information.