What would a hospital app should be like, according to users? Improved results and reduced prices. These two are the hardest things to achieve when it comes to hospital app development.
Hospitals have developed the apps to take care of their patients. Apps are helping patients by supporting them in improving health, managing their conditions, guiding them in emergencies, keeping a track of their medications, etc. Hospitals are doing all this efficiently, but they all are ending up paying a price higher than their basic earnings. This is the reason why all hospitals are not eager to enter in digital era. Apart from money, other challenges are blocking the way to digital world.
Let’s discuss each one briefly...
1. Out of Budget
66% of 100 largest hospitals of US offered mobile apps which were used by only 2% or lesser patients. Studies also found that 11% of those hospital apps had the most demanded features like access to medical records and prescription refills. Even after giving what users/patients want, hospitals are not able to make it through millions of users. Because of which it is difficult for hospitals to expect ROI from their apps.
Another thing that is going beyond budget is cost of building and maintaining infrastructure. After spending high on development, maintenance cost is quite unaffordable. And knowing that their maintenance is just for a few numbers of users is making things more arduous to manage.
2. Expertise
Top app developers are well-trained in making user-driven apps. They take care of both front-end and back-end part of app development, so that users and the owner of app won’t bother to look out for things in deep. Hospitals generally lack such expertise needed to take care of all parts of app. They don’t hire a whole team to look after for front-end, back-end, marketing, updates, etc. That is the reason why most of hospital apps end up look like a brochure apps.
3. Security Issues
With the rapidly increasing hacking attacks, things are turning out of control for budget-concern hospital apps. Hospitals have to spend separately to keep the data secure as their apps are attached with patients and their disease. Any breach can be a big deal for hospital. It will make the patient lose trust easily.
4. Outdated Enterprise System
People at hospitals remain too busy with patients. They can’t give priority to digital things like apps more than their patients. That’s why they follow old system which has been taught years ago. They don’t have time to adopt new systems. Also, if they try to do something new, it will cost them money as well as time to take care of things in a new way. For this, they need a separate IT team.
5. Cloud Compromise
Due to extreme sensitivity towards securities, hospitals can’t rely on Cloud to take care of data. They manage it all within their own limits which lead their data turn into a mess. Also, this no-cloud technique hangs their whole system including the app too. This causes a problem for hospitals as well as for patients too who are not able to save anything to cloud.
Conclusion
Hospital app development means high complexities that are not the job of single person and not the job of hospital staff. If hospitals recruit a whole IT team to take care of digital things, it can be easier to manage. But that too cost higher than the budget. It may also lead to increasing cost of other hospital facilities like medicines, etc. Right now, things are not simple, but digital has always made its way through obstacles.
Hospitals have developed the apps to take care of their patients. Apps are helping patients by supporting them in improving health, managing their conditions, guiding them in emergencies, keeping a track of their medications, etc. Hospitals are doing all this efficiently, but they all are ending up paying a price higher than their basic earnings. This is the reason why all hospitals are not eager to enter in digital era. Apart from money, other challenges are blocking the way to digital world.
Let’s discuss each one briefly...
1. Out of Budget
66% of 100 largest hospitals of US offered mobile apps which were used by only 2% or lesser patients. Studies also found that 11% of those hospital apps had the most demanded features like access to medical records and prescription refills. Even after giving what users/patients want, hospitals are not able to make it through millions of users. Because of which it is difficult for hospitals to expect ROI from their apps.
Another thing that is going beyond budget is cost of building and maintaining infrastructure. After spending high on development, maintenance cost is quite unaffordable. And knowing that their maintenance is just for a few numbers of users is making things more arduous to manage.
2. Expertise
Top app developers are well-trained in making user-driven apps. They take care of both front-end and back-end part of app development, so that users and the owner of app won’t bother to look out for things in deep. Hospitals generally lack such expertise needed to take care of all parts of app. They don’t hire a whole team to look after for front-end, back-end, marketing, updates, etc. That is the reason why most of hospital apps end up look like a brochure apps.
3. Security Issues
With the rapidly increasing hacking attacks, things are turning out of control for budget-concern hospital apps. Hospitals have to spend separately to keep the data secure as their apps are attached with patients and their disease. Any breach can be a big deal for hospital. It will make the patient lose trust easily.
4. Outdated Enterprise System
People at hospitals remain too busy with patients. They can’t give priority to digital things like apps more than their patients. That’s why they follow old system which has been taught years ago. They don’t have time to adopt new systems. Also, if they try to do something new, it will cost them money as well as time to take care of things in a new way. For this, they need a separate IT team.
5. Cloud Compromise
Due to extreme sensitivity towards securities, hospitals can’t rely on Cloud to take care of data. They manage it all within their own limits which lead their data turn into a mess. Also, this no-cloud technique hangs their whole system including the app too. This causes a problem for hospitals as well as for patients too who are not able to save anything to cloud.
Conclusion
Hospital app development means high complexities that are not the job of single person and not the job of hospital staff. If hospitals recruit a whole IT team to take care of digital things, it can be easier to manage. But that too cost higher than the budget. It may also lead to increasing cost of other hospital facilities like medicines, etc. Right now, things are not simple, but digital has always made its way through obstacles.