Cloud Computing in Home Care
Cloud computing is the latest buzz word to hit the corporate world. While it's become all the rage, the problem is that (similar to the PT 13th and 19th reassessment visit requirement by CMS) everyone seems to have a different definition.
As a metaphor for the Internet, "the cloud" is a familiar cliche, but when combined with "computing," the meaning gets bigger and fuzzier. Some vendors define cloud computing narrowly as servers and infrastructure on the web such as for large corporations and scientific computing. Others go very broad, arguing anything you access via the internet is "in the cloud" including conventional hosting of your server in a remote data center. So what exactly is cloud computing and how does it compare to other approaches from the perspective of the Home care Industry?
The old adage that what goes around comes around is ever true in technology, so let's start at the beginning and come to the clouds of today:
Time Sharing: This was the 1960's era of mainframe computers where multiple users got to use a computer for a shared purpose, such as running payroll, scheduling trains, financial analysis and reports. Due to the prohibitive costs of the computing resources this was also the only viable model for companies who could not afford the infrastructure to buy time on someone else's computer to get their work done. Because the computer's time was at a premium, everything was done in batch model so users did not interact with the computer as much as they prepared all the data the computer needed to do its job, sent it in and waited 2-3 days for the results to come back when their time slot rolled around. Smaller businesses such as Home care agencies never used this model due to the costs as well as the lack of timeliness of the data.
Client/Server: With the advent of the PC and less expensive hardware, the era of the client server began in the 1980's and was more affordable to small business including medium and larger home care agencies. Users interacted with computers via screens and keyboards and did tasks on demand as the business needed and results were obtained in minutes to hours. In this model each Client PC had software installed on it with which the user interacted with the main software and data stored on a server housed within the same four walls. Each location required its own set of server and clients as a client/server system was not capable enough to handle large number of users or more than one location and Client/Server systems were notorious for their need for IT persons to care and feed them. As technology changed in mid to late 2000's, Client/Server began to handle a handful of locations and more users but could never escape the constraints of their design which limited scalability beyond that. Web based: With the advent of the internet in the late 90's came common client software called web browsers which could be used to access content and perform tasks on remote servers via the internet. For instance, booking a plane ticket, reading an e-newspaper, e-commerce etc. Unfortunately for home care agencies there was no software available that was web based and designed for home care agency functions until the mid-2000's. When it did come however in the mid 2000's and since, it came from companies who essentially copied the client/server model. This meant the web based software needed dedicated servers for each customer and had the same scalability limitations of running multiple locations and running more than tens of users on a single server and as a customer's needs and data expanded, the customer had to be migrated to bigger and bigger servers until the limit of current technology were reached.
Web Enabled: Before web based software became prevalent in the latter half of 2000, businesses were demanding the economical, easy to use model of web based software as it reduced their Information Technology costs. Client/Server companies saw an opportunity and enabled their old software, without modernizing it, to be accessible via the cheap and ubiquitous internet. To do this however, they had to use expensive technological tricks such as Citrix software to have a client running in their data center but whose keyboard/mouse/screen can be used via the internet from an ordinary web browser. All this did however, was put a pretty face on tired software that had all the limitations of Client/Server of running in single locations and handling tens of users. A larger agency could not use this model as it would not scale to hundred of users and tens of locations and would not be able to provide consolidated reporting and management across locations.
Cloud Computing: As the technology of the web got sophisticated since the early 2000's, newer companies came on the scene such as Yahoo, Google, eBay and Facebook that developed software to allow tens of thousands to millions of users to easily use a single shared software system, while keeping each users data completely secure and separate. This was possible because the software was written from the ground up to be massively scalable, to allow unlimited users, unlimited data and locations and took advantage of large data centers. In a sense this is Time Sharing back in a more powerful, much more usable and economical guise. Building such a platform however requires massive resources and technological sophistication, something that traditionally was not available in our part of the healthcare sector. ContinuLink was the first (since 2004) and today still the only true cloud computing software for Homecare. Even for a single customer it can support hundreds of locations, and tens of thousands of users all while simultaneously supporting hundreds of such customers with no degradation in performance. ContinuLink today is the largest and most sophisticated homecare software platform in the country. ContinuLink was born within the home healthcare industry and with the resources of an homecare industry leader and understands the needs of home care agencies. The Mission of our company and software has always been to make a positive difference to the post-acute care continuum by providing a sophisticated, reliable, and professionally supported yet simple to use software system that enables better patient care and satisfaction while promoting efficiencies for a profitable and healthy industry.
Our innovative and industry disrupting pricing model of no upfront software or hardware costs and with easily understood all inclusive monthly subscription fees with unlimited users have revolutionized the homecare software industry and our tenure and history in home healthcare have made our mission a reality for our users.
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