{"id":2076,"date":"2011-05-02T07:00:26","date_gmt":"2011-05-02T15:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.formtek.com\/blog\/?p=2076"},"modified":"2011-05-02T07:00:26","modified_gmt":"2011-05-02T15:00:26","slug":"health-care-ehr-data-storage-costs-to-be-minimal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/formtek.com\/blog\/health-care-ehr-data-storage-costs-to-be-minimal\/","title":{"rendered":"Health Care: EHR Data Storage Costs to be Minimal"},"content":{"rendered":"

The implementation of EHR systems are ultimately expected to make both hospitals and physicians more efficient, less error prone, and to save money. \u00a0A study by CDW HealthCare<\/a> in late 2010\u00a0estimates <\/a>that while adoption of an EHR system could cost a physician $120,000 on average, without considering federal government stimulus incentive spending, the system will have more than paid for itself in just one year. \u00a0Most of the savings are expected to come from \u00a0efficiencies. \u00a0EHR systems allow physicians to see as many as 15 percent more patients, and that can amount to as much as additional $150,000 revenues over the course of one year.<\/p>\n

John Karl of CDW HealthCare said that “through a more efficient use of the EHR system, you can actually accelerate the speed by which you or your staff can provide care… \u00a0The quicker you’re able to integrate the solution into your practice, the quicker you’re recouping your investment and setting your path to meaningful use.”<\/p>\n

A calculation by John D. Halamka<\/a>, MD, chief information officer at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) and Harvard Medical School, finds that the storage costs of EHRs are one of the few bargain prices items you’ll find in today’s health care environment. \u00a0Halamka’s calculation <\/a>considered the 250,000 EHRs now stored at BIDMC. \u00a0Those records today occupy roughly 20 terabytes of data. \u00a0He calculates that at today’s price of storage that it will cost about $.42 to store text data for 15 years for an individual and another $1.89 to store imaging data for an individual over 7 years. \u00a0After that, Halamka estimates that the cost to store text will be $.05 per year for text and $.47 per year for imaging data.<\/p>\n

Halamka comments that “the equivalent of Moore\u2019s law applies to storage \u2013 continuously decreasing costs and higher density. We\u2019ll also have cloud storage options (although no public cloud provider yet offers HIPAA compliant storage with indemnification for privacy breaches).”<\/p>\n

Halamka points out that the while these costs are minimal, there are factors which can magnify those costs. \u00a0These include:<\/p>\n