Memo
Date: December 3, 2011
To: Frank Skeptic, IT project supervisor
From: Haseeb Nawaz, IT specialist
Subject: An application service provider (ASP) that will provide better security and
automate administration
This report will outline the benefits of application service provider (ASP) model as opposed to
traditional electronic health records (EHR). This report also explores ASP options and analyzes
two different types ofASP solutions. Lastly, this report includes the reasons as to why our
hospital should adapt one of theseASP-based solutions.
Over the last few years, with wider availability of broadband connections, more sophisticated
vendor solutions, and a growing number of options for hosting software, the application service
provider (ASP) model has emerged as an alternative to purchasing, installing, and maintaining
EHRs and other software at medical clinics. In this approach, an organization maintains the
application and related hardware, while the physicians access it remotely over a network
connection and pay a monthly fee.
Benefits ofASPsolution
There are two main differences between anASP-based solution and traditional EHRs. First, the
clinical application for ASP is not housed at the clinical facility. The application and software
that the physicians access is supported via a secure network or internet connection. Second, there
is no need to buy or install expensive hardware and software which would require regular costly
updates. “Buying an EHR application can be expensive – as much as $44000 per provider on
average, with estimated ongoing costs of $8500 per provider per year (Fortin & MacDonald,
2006, p.6).”
An ASP solution offers numerous other benefits that maybe of our interest. These include
(Kanccheva, 2002, p.5):
• Asuperior practice from specialized expertise
• Areduced risk due to a lower capital investment
• Accessibility using thin clients
• Scalability, flexibility of add-ons and changes
• Ability to focus on core businesses (physicians maintaining an EMR on a server in their
office can end up spending inordinate amounts of time supporting the technology rather
than freeing up time for patient care or themselves.) This figure shows theASP model’s upfront and ongoing cost (Fortin & MacDonald, 2006, p.11):
This figure shows the traditional EHR’s upfront and ongoing costs (Fortin & MacDonald, 2006,
p.12):
This comparison shows that anASP-based solution’s overall costs are much lower for the first
few years. At some point, theASP costs will become greater than traditional EHRs. However,
that would take a long period of time and perhaps better solutions will be available at that time. Furthermore, our hospitals top priority is to provide better security for our data and automate
administration. “An ASP hosts the databases in environments which have 24/7 security
monitoring, including sophisticated intrusion detection and prevention, compared to the data
stored on a less closely monitored ser
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