Cloud vs Offline System

Are you online? Most of us can answer yes. Everything from our phones, tablets, laptops and desktops are connected to the Internet, probably all the time. We rely on this interconnectivity for routine tasks like finding the best route to our children’s soccer game to bigger tasks like planning our next vacation or researching which new car to buy. The Internet provides so many people with value because it gives them easy access to information that might otherwise be difficult to obtain. However, the Internet “works” for another important reason.

Behind the Internet — in fact, embedded in it — is “the cloud.” The cloud is actually a very concrete thing — a set of servers (powerful computers) housed securely in data centers (a server management facility) which assure they always remain online and operating. And there’s not just one data center, either; there are thousands, if not tens of thousands of them, globally. The practical implications of this are clear — someone else is managing these servers, not you, and you benefit from that, and that benefit is enormous. PatientNOW is now “in the cloud” — but how does that specifically benefit your practice?

A Cloud Solution Is Easier

A great challenge of implementing a practice management solution — or changing or upgrading one you already have — is the hardware. You will need to find a secure place in your office for it, then ensure you have the necessary power to run your machines, the air-conditioning to cool them and the security to keep them and your patients’ data safe. This can pose significant logistical problems even for larger practices, not to mention costs. If you don’t have a room ready for these computers, you might even have to build one, which could create many different kinds of problems for your practice.

A cloud solution, on the other hand, delivers the full functionality of the PatientNOW suite to every Internet-connected device you already have in your practice without adding any new devices — unless, of course, you want to. Using secure-access web portals, you can derive the full benefit from all PatientNOW’s modules including scheduling management, reminders, automated marketing, inventory control, lab orders and prescription delivery. Any screen you have — even your smartphone — can be an access point to your PatientNOW system, and you won’t have to knock out a wall or install 30-amp power sockets to run it all.

A Cloud Solution Is Faster

With a server, as with a race car, speed comes at a premium. If you want a faster model, you’d better be prepared to pay for it. So if you want a fast in-house practice management solution, you have a couple of options. You can buy the most expensive server you can afford, or you can rely on a PatientNOW cloud-based system which only requires a good Internet connection. Cost-wise, a reliable Internet connection wins hands-down both in the short and long-term, and PatientNOW operates, maintains and offers its customers servers which are probably many-times more powerful and efficient than a practice on its own would likely wish to purchase or finance.

Speed and efficiency, however, are not the only factors to consider here. There is also the problem of scalability, the ability to add more “computing power” to your system easily as your practice expands and you need additional resources to keep up with it. To be sure, if you manage your own servers, you can add in what you need when you need it. But you have another option. PatientNOW can easily help practices scale to their needs without hassles, so you don’t have to worry about “hardware.” We’d rather you spend that time thinking about your patients.

A Cloud Solution Is More Reliable

What happens if your system goes down? Who’s going to be responsible for that? Do they know how to get you back online quickly while also protecting your patient data? And do you really want to have to worry about this while you’re also trying to see patients? A cloud solution gives you guaranteed “up-time” and puts the resources behind the system to make sure you can access the tools you need when you need them and quickly get you back online should something happen.

Servers and data that don’t sit in your physical offices provide patients with a level of safety and security they simply can’t have when your practice’s hardware sits in your own offices. And these added protections that are integral to a PatientNOW cloud system can give doctors and their practices substantial piece of mind that can directly translate into more focused and qualitatively better patient care. With a PatientNOW cloud-based practice-management system, everyone wins.

Everything you love about PatientNOW, only better

You have come to rely on PatientNOW’s many practice-enhancing features which include — just to name a few — full HIPAA compliance, multiple location and user support, device agnostic functionality and marketing and lab integration tools. With a PatientNOW cloud-based system, you will continue to get all these features plus more, like added security, speed, scalability and, best of all, even less to worry about, so you can focus on what matters most — your practice and your patients. You have enough to worry about without also having to worry about your computer system. With PatientNOW, you can simply deliver exceptional patient care.