What Should the Major Tech Companies Do If They Want to Get Into Healthcare?

Buying another technology company, like an EMR company, is not the ideal method for a technology organization to tap into the healthcare market. There was a lot of buzz recently when Jim Cramer made a comment on his show Mad Money recommending Apple buy the electronic medical record vendor, Epic Systems. While that is one approach to gain the market share, it will not transform the industry.

Instead, Apple or another major technology company must buy a hospital or a small health system to transform operations and take advantage of the latest technology solutions. Buying another healthcare technology company, like Epic Systems, will not have the same impact if the operating model and processes do not change. Here are the benefits of having a technology company operate a hospital.

1. Every hospital is a digital technology company. One of the highest operating department expenditures in a hospital operation is IT. A technology company mentality in a hospital will maximize the use of every toolset to drive organizational efficiency. This approach will change the culture by viewing the technology portfolio as a competitive advantage. Technology vendors have all made investments toward agile while hospital systems have invested heavily on the LEAN process. Incorporating agile will complement an organization’s LEAN transformation journey to drive the efficiency goal.
2. Opportunity to fast track technology debt. The lack of cutting-edge…