Abstract
The $2 trillion ecosystem of hospitals, physicians, pharmaceutical companies,
and insurance providers will be spending tens of billions of dollars over the
next five years on telecommunications services. Rising healthcare industry
costs and a shortage of skilled staff have created a lucrative opportunity for
technology and service providers, as hospitals and other front-line healthcare
providers look to adopt new technology to lower their operating costs.
Wireless LANs, VoIP deployments, the RFID tagging of patients and hospital
assets, as well as extending care to remote patients via telemedicine
applications all promise to lower healthcare delivery costs. While the initial
deployment analysis for revamped technology suggested long ago an increase in
productivity and reduction in healthcare providers operating costs, more
recent studies of patient satisfaction, the availability of federal grants,
and upcoming Medicare reimbursement policy for connection charges suggest that
in the months and years ahead the healthcare industry is ready to make the
commitment to a new generation of networking technology.
This study examines the emergence of techno-healthcare, surveys the rollout
plans for a representative number of US hospitals, and forecasts spending for
hardware and network services across the healthcare industry.
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