Traditionally focused on delivering content to users and marketing an organization's services, web sites are now expected to play a more important role in delivering ancillary application data such as lab and radiology results. Fifty-three percent of physicians believe that using secure web sites to report lab results would be of great value. The IS department often acts as a gatekeeper, controlling access to the Internet and respective services. And while 45 percent of health care organizations plan to offer Internet access to physicians and other clinical staff, many institutions are not using the Internet for clinical applications at all. Delivering quality health care will increasingly depend on the ability to process patient information and share data across the care continuum.
Industry plans big increase in Internet use for supply chain applications.
Information technology is making it possible to deliver and share not only clinical information, but materials management information as well. But ineffective information systems relying on paper-based and decentralized processes are causing health care to lag behind other industries in the areas of cost reduction and quality improvement. Findings show that only 6 percent of the health care industry uses the Internet for supply chain management applications, compared to an industry-wide usage of 25 percent. Significant savings opportunities still exist in the areas of procurement, inventory, and transportation management systems. Most employers do not monitor the quality of care provided by health plans.