A Commodity Based Model that is in 2017 Changing Business Decision Making and Investments in Healthcare.
Over the past two decades, technology companies have been able to sell the value of their technology based upon a set of features and benefits that they feel is important. For example, one company may feel that this capability of WLAN networking is superior to our competitors due to initial WLAN design as well as on-going security monitoring. In the case of patient monitoring companies it may be felt, “we have been your clinical business partner for years and we have this unique capability”. This has all changed. Executives are looking at the bottom line in healthcare and they are scrutinizing capital expenditures. A large part of this shift of capital expenditure is to meet meaningful use and the EHR expansion requirements.
In a simple analogy, networking is like electricity: it is needed everywhere. And, it just has to work in such an equally reliable fashion. The same goes for patient monitoring. Both networking and patient monitoring have to work in a critically high manner 24/7/365.
From a patient monitoring experience there is no revolutionary new parameter that will validate and verify the difference between the companies. All companies can monitor the same physiological parameters. All companies have to also meet the requirements of the FDA 510(k) approval process for safe and effective use of those physiological parameters.
Those companies in the networking and patient monitoring space will need to demonstrate a real ROI and increased clinical value in the healthcare vertical. Healthcare systems should take into account costly on-going software updates, end of life hardware refreshes, and warranty coverage. This will factor into the actual total cost of ownership that will reveal the true ROI.
Those companies that can provide software-based analytics to help improve the day-to-day business requirements along with the best ROI of the capital expenditure over a period of years will probably win the business. Analytics that enables the mining of networked-based clinical events and strategic information may help address questions such as: Are the right users taking advantage of our application investments? What medical devices are operating on the WLAN? Are we at risk for compliance violation? This type of business analytics allows the network to be turned into a strategic business asset that can provide information insight to lower risk and improve operations.
