Bridging On-Premise and Cloud Systems in Healthcare with Hybrid Infrastructure

Find out how a hybrid infrastructure can help healthcare organizations provide better care, work more effectively, and achieve greater flexibility

Key Takeaways:

• A hybrid IT structure can provide the best of cloud and legacy systems
• The demand for regulatory compliance requires proven solutions
• The flexibility of a hybrid infrastructure can improve patient care and system efficiency
• The right IT partner has the expertise to link on-premise and cloud systems

Healthcare organizations depend on their IT infrastructures to keep sensitive patient information safe, work more effectively, improve patient outcomes, and provide the kind of flexibility needed by the fast-changing sector.

Sometimes, healthcare companies feel they must choose between their dependable legacy systems and more innovative cloud solutions. But the good news is that a hybrid setup may be the best solution, created by a digital transformation company with expertise in creating hybrid cloud and on-premises structures, leveraging the best of both technologies for clients.

Yes, it’s possible to bridge legacy systems with new technology to create a hybrid infrastructure that maximizes IT resilience, efficiency, and compliance with expert-backed strategies.

Why Hybrid IT Matters in Healthcare

Healthcare organizations need both innovation and security. They can achieve these by combining the legacy systems they’ve come to rely on with cloud technology that gives them access to game-changing tools. The flexibility of cloud solutions and the stability of healthcare on-premise infrastructure systems work together to ensure consistent performance and great responsiveness.

By combining private cloud, public cloud, and on-premises infrastructure, a healthcare company can improve the scalability, agility, flexibility, and cost-effectiveness of its system’s applications and data. The solutions can address specific healthcare needs, including secure data access from different locations, around-the-clock support of critical applications, and minimizing downtime.

An organization might opt to keep its most sensitive information on an in-house server to protect it while using the tools of the cloud to deliver applications and services.

Quick, reliable communications among different systems and departments can help to improve collaboration and patient outcomes. The flexibility of healthcare hybrid infrastructures allows organizations to handle a great number of workloads simultaneously, scaling up and scaling down capacity as needed. 

Greater system stability, a smaller hardware infrastructure, and the ability to adapt to different conditions can also help optimize budgets and save money.

Key Compliance and Security Requirements

When running a hybrid healthcare IT structure, you must ensure that both cloud and on-premises systems are safe and secure, complying with relevant regulations, especially as data is exchanged.

In the United States, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) is designed to protect patients’ medical records and other information provided to health plans, doctors, hospitals, and other healthcare providers. Its key rules cover:

• Privacy
• Security
• Transaction and code sets
• Enforcement

Then there is the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) of the European Union, which may be the most comprehensive data protection law on the planet. It has severe precautions about how health data is handled, including:

• Processing personal data only if you have an explicitly legal basis to do so
• Processing only the minimum amount of data required
• Putting into place a wide range of strong security measures
• Informing subjects of your comprehensive privacy policy

Companies that aren’t compliant with relevant regulations face heavy fines as well as the loss of reputation and damage to the bottom line that comes with major data breaches.

Integrating Legacy Systems with Cloud Solutions

One of the major hurdles in creating a healthcare hybrid infrastructure may be the legacy system’s lack of compatibility with new cloud technology. APS or middleware can connect the two, enabling them to exchange data with a functional interface. 

You also need to implement data synchronization and batch processing methods to ensure that information is accurately updated across both environments.

While you may be able to make your legacy system work in a hybrid arrangement, at some point, you will be faced with the question of whether it is doing you more harm than it’s worth as the technology ages. For example, are breakdowns and frequent maintenance putting a burden on IT staff and straining budgets? Are slow network speeds, lags, performance issues, and application crashes frequent? Does the healthcare hybrid infrastructure lack the scalability to handle increased volumes of work?

If you answer yes to any of these questions, it may be time to update your legacy system.

Patient Care and Efficiency Enhancements

Hybrid IT enables faster, more reliable access to patient records, allowing providers to make informed decisions and deliver timely care. From the patients’ point of view, technological advancements allow them easier access to healthcare services, enabling them to schedule remote consultations, book in-person appointments, receive medication reminders and health monitoring, and do much more. This fulfills their expectations for superior customer service and personalized service.

Data-driven insights derived from different sources, including medical devices and wearables, can also improve patient care quality.

Healthcare providers can consolidate patient data from different sources, reducing administrative burden and errors. The technology also facilitates easy collaboration among healthcare providers, patients, and stakeholders, expediting processes and improving results. Advancements in technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, Internet of Things (IoT), and big data analytics also help to reduce the need for fully on-premise or fully cloud-based solutions, optimizing infrastructure costs and resources.

CoreBTS’s Expertise in Healthcare Hybrid IT

CoreBTS specializes in solutions for building compliant, secure hybrid infrastructure tailored to the healthcare industry. We can efficiently juggle the demands of integrating healthcare cloud infrastructure and legacy systems, supporting you every step of the way, from planning to deployment.

For example, during the COVID-19 pandemic, we worked with Kroger Health, one of the country’s leading healthcare organizations, to migrate many on-premise services and applications to the cloud. This provided customers with easy access to the solutions and services they needed and positioned Kroger to scale and evolve its approach to healthcare easily.

Do you want to discover how a hybrid healthcare IT solution can help your organization? We would love to hear from you. With an assessment tailored to your needs, one of our experienced professionals can help you implement a dynamic and effective strategy. Your business health is our priority.