iCare

EHR, EMR, EPR: The terms EHR, EPR (electronic patient record) and EMR (electronic medical record) are often used interchangeably, although differences between them can be defined. The EMR can, for example, be defined as the patient record created in hospitals and ambulatory environments, and which can serve as a data source for the EHR. It is important to note that an EHR is generated and maintained within an institution, such as a hospital, integrated delivery network, clinic, or physician office, to give patients, physicians and other health care providers, employers, and payers or insurers access to a patient's medical records across facilities.

A personal health record: (PHR) is, in modern parlance, generally defined as an EHR that the individual patient controls

Cloud Computing: is the delivery of computing as a service rather than a product, whereby shared resources, software, and information are provided to computers and other devices as a utility over the internet. Cloud computing provides computation, software applications, data access, data management and storage resources without requiring cloud users to know the location and other details of the computing infrastructure.

End users access iCare through a secure web browser or a lightweight desktop or mobile app while the business software and patient data are stored on secure HIPAA certified servers at a remote location. Cloud application providers strive to give the same or better service and performance than if the software programs were installed locally on end-user computers at a fraction of the cost of installed software.

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The answer is a resounding, NO. Overspending on 30 year-old architecture and deploying with an installed model where the hospital maintains its own hardware and software is something that corporate America is simply not doing much of anymore. One could argue, by going from paper-based processes to electronic records this is an upgrade. And that is true. However, until the emergence of iCare, hospitals have had nowhere to turn.

It is clear that the very reason the U.S. Government introduced these incentives is because America's healthcare facilities are well behind other countries as it relates to technology and electronic patient records. iCare believes that incentivizing facilities to become reliant on installed software is not going to fix the problem. In fact, this dependence will make the problem worse. What happens when the incentives go away and these very same facilities, who are running on paper thin margins, stop receiving meaningful use funds? All the while their IT costs remain the same. This inevitably creates a negative value gap for customers.

Click here to download the iCare Cloud White Paper.

2013 SFHHA Annual Healthcare Summit
June 13-14, 2013
Ft. Lauderdale, FL