he modern world requires modern solutions, and so do modern hospitals. Whether you are a hospital/clinic owner or manager, you need access to diverse solutions that would help manage the day-to-day activities in a more efficient way. Today, there is a strong demand for both cloud-based as well as on-premise hospital management software.
In the post-COVID world, there has been a rise in the demand of top-quality hospital management software for easy and glitch-free management of healthcare institutions. The focus here is on patient care, and deployment of the right software is mandatory to take off the workload and set higher standards for quality healthcare.
While both cloud-based & on-premise solutions bring their own set of benefits, it is important to understand the differences between the two to determine which one is better.
1. Architectural Model:
The cloud-based hospital software is internet-based and works on an on-demand network accessing system. Not just that, other components within the suite are engineered to perfectly fit the management’s requirement, which could either be public, private, or hybrid clouds.
- Public Cloud:
This type of management software can be easily accessed by various organizations while using the very same hardware and network devices.
- Private Cloud:
Private cloud-based hospital management software is mostly owned by 3rd party solution providers for dedicated servers.
- Hybrid Cloud:
As the name suggests, hybrid cloud solutions provide you the functionalities of private as well as public clouds.
On the other hand, on-premise hospital software is managed completely in-house and can be hosted locally. This architecture variant of hospital management requires a dedicated team for proper IT maintenance.
2. Data Accessibility:
Cloud-based hospital management software provides complete access to data anytime, anywhere. Additionally, it offers features such as work flexibility given that data isn’t limited due to any physical server.
In the current scenario, when home-based work style is the new norm for the management team, opting for cloud-based hospital software is an ideal choice. With on-premise systems, teams can access data only at the institution, limiting work flexibility to a physical location. However, the backup services might help in this scenario for data utilization.
3. Data Security and Safety:
In the medical sector, even a slight data corruption or mishandling can lead to major consequences. Medical records and patient information, especially in a pandemic situation, must be contained or stored with the best caution in order. This makes selection of the right management solution a must.
In terms of data safety and security, hospitals and clinics that use cloud-based software might not get access to high-level security as compared to the on-premise software.
While there are downside to using on-premise software, the fact that it depends on an on-premise team for smooth functioning brings down its likelihood of being vulnerable to hacking.
4. Software Maintenance & Updating:
The modern-day cloud-based hospital management software is maintained by a specialized IT team that ensures the software is user-friendly. This makes the process of software update and maintenance pretty easy as compared to on-premise software.
Cloud-based software allows automated update and maintenance with minimal work for your hospital staff. Whereas on-premise hospital software is slightly difficult to maintain, repair, monitor, etc.
5. Cost Factor:
Before you go ahead and adopt system software for hospital data security, you also need to factor in its pricing. Now, this doesn’t mean that you should go with cheaply-priced software. You must also consider its.
It’s worth paying a couple of bucks extra for features that fit well for your hospital and its easy management. In most cases, cloud-based software is priced lower as compared to on-premise options. This is due to the fact that cloud-based software doesn’t require you to invest in software, hardware, or network personnel.
On the other hand, on-premise software requires the hospital to invest a bigger sum given the fact that they do require hardware installation as well as an on-premise team for better management.
Conclusion
Choosing the right hospital management software depends entirely upon the requirements of the management team as well as the patients. Before investing in any cloud-based or on-premise hospital management software, keep in mind the factors explained above. Prepare a quick checklist of the crucial requirements before investing. In case you are looking for feasibility, data accessibility, or cost factor, cloud-based management software would be an ideal choice. On the other hand, on-premise software would bring you access to data security and safety.
So, choose wisely!
