FAQs

Is Accessing your EHR through the cloud less expensive?

This is usually the case. For medical practices who buy their own servers, software licenses, set-up and maintenance—there is a significant initial investment and considerable operating expense each year thereafter, which can be avoided by using the PSM Cloud. Annual costs include hardware upgrades and replacement, software upgrades, hardware and software maintenance agreements, IT support staff time (beyond regular desktop support). Cloud-based services give you a fixed & predictable monthly cost with built-in equipment replacement, software upgrades and related IT technical support. Using the PSM Cloud also allows for a quick and cost-efficient method to scale up when practices grow by adding staff, providers or locations.

Is your data secure?

With the PSM Cloud, you always own your own data, and can access it when you need to. Data for your medical practice is stored in the PSM Cloud in compliance with HIPAA and HITECH laws and regulations. Information security includes the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of patient data and business intelligence. More sophisticated Cloud providers tend to maintain industry-specific security certifications or audit standards, such as SAE-16/18 audit standards or the HITRUST CSF, which encapsulates and normalizes NIST, ISO, HIPAA, HITECH, and other security frameworks. Meeting these standards and being certified or audited are typically much more time-consuming and expensive for medical practices that host their own software. In addition, the industry trend toward using the Cloud is driven in part by transferring risk to entities, such as PSM, that are best positioned to manage it.

Is your data backed up?

Efforts and outcomes related to data management, disaster recovery, off-site backup, recovery time objectives (RTO), and recovery point objectives (RPO) typically favor hosted solutions. A major advantage to using a Cloud provider is that the disaster recovery strategy is not subject to knowledge loss or procedural drift because of medical practice employee turnover or re-tasking. Also, automatic off-site backup is a standard feature of reputable Cloud providers. PSM’s back-up process is described in the HIPAA Statement of Compliance.

Can you Access your data whenever you want?
Yes, if you have access to the right browser and an internet connection. A benefit to Cloud computing is that real-time patient data is accessible from multiple locations for medical providers and staff. For medical practices with multiple offices, this is invaluable. Patient data stored on Cloud-based systems can be accessed from tablets, desktop computers and other mobile devices, and is not dependent on a specific location or server. This holds true for patient portals, in which patients can access their information from a variety of locations. Cloud-based servers provide medical practitioners with the option to work from home or any other location outside of the office, using a secure connection. Access to data stored by PSM is available except during normal maintenance hours, usually late at night or very early morning.

Please contact PSM directly if you have any questions or are interested in a demo or support.

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