Founded in 1995, Bluegate Corporation is headquartered in Houston, Texas and is an industry leader of outsourced IT solutions and services specific for the healthcare industry, serving the needs of hospital and physician practices coast to coast.

Opportunity in Healthcare

In 2008, every hospital system, in every major city in the United States, currently has some plan to deploy an Electronic Medical Record (“EMR”) or similar clinical information system within the four walls of their hospital. Furthermore, more than 65% of physicians in the United States plan to purchase an EMR system within the next three years.

Progressive hospital systems and larger physician practices currently have information technology budgets that include funds for deployment of new clinical information systems. They recognize that these information systems serve as key mechanisms to effectively compete in a cost sensitive, more transparent, information and outcomes driven marketplace.

This market demand is ultimately being driven by the predominant payers of healthcare, government, employers and insurance companies. Payers recognize the economic value of a healthcare system that more efficiently treats patients and produces higher quality outcomes.

It is an undisputed fact that in a few years the overall size of the marketplace, already the largest industry in the United States at 17% of GDP, will soon be increasing in size at unprecedented rates. This record growth will be a direct result of the baby boomers creating a long predicted “tsunami of use”.

Additionally, hospitals rely almost exclusively on independent physicians to admit patients to its facilities. These doctors typically operate in detached and independent micro small enterprises and they are over a decade behind in information technology adoption when compared to other small businesses. The effective integration of these physicians into the hospital’s newly deployed clinical information systems is therefore becoming increasingly critical in capturing greater market share.

After identifying and choosing these IT systems, the enterprise’s immediate concern is deploying and integrating these systems into their ongoing operations. Regardless of size, most healthcare enterprises do not have employees with the expertise in deploying such systems. To meet that need, they look to partners like Bluegate to assist them with these efforts.

Understanding and responding to the industry need, Bluegate provides IT and telecommunications consulting to these healthcare entities through its professional services organization.

Our Areas of Practice

Professional Services

Bluegate understands that the healthcare industry is different than any other, for a myriad of reasons. Healthcare institutions have very unique requirements not found in the typical commercial environment. Recognizing these differences and understanding the nuances, politics and unique economic drivers of the healthcare world, our consulting practice works with medical facilities and systems on evaluation, procurement and implementation of healthcare related applications, voice, data, video, and infrastructure for the healthcare environment with a particular emphasis on the deployment of clinical and financial applications.

Applications

Our Applications consulting practice also provides specific applications planning, project management, configuration, integration, and optimization. Our consultants have experience implementing financial and clinical systems in both ambulatory and inpatient environments for Epic, Meditech, McKesson, and IDX. Our documented and proven methodologies and seasoned consultants enable our clients to bridge the gap between project expectations and actual realization of benefits.

IT/Telecommunications

Our IT/Telecommunications consulting practice assists clients in the procurement and utilization of technology resources to their financial and strategic advantage. Organizations depend heavily on technology to support their core systems; any new construction must therefore include the integration of these systems. In order to be competitive companies must carry out three activities. Firstly they must use current technology resources efficiently, secondly they need to know whose resources can be adapted to meet new challenges, and lastly they need to develop strategies to help them achieve their vision for the future.

Medical Grade Network®

Once the hospital has installed the necessary secure electronic connectivity behind their firewall, the "last mile" of connectivity, the figurative distance from the telecommunication provider's switch to an end user (i.e. the physician), still presents a major challenge. In addition to being HIPAA-compliant, the networks also need to be interoperable, which requires assessing and augmenting physicians' existing IT equipment and resources. Adequate training and technical support is necessary to ensure the highest possible network availability and security and the ability to move and manage information back and forth.

Our IT outsourcing offering branded as the Medical Grade Network is a solution that, at its core, addresses the HIPAA regulations relating to the security of electronic personal healthcare information transmissions.

The basic Medical Grade Network offering is an outsourced solution for secure connectivity between the physician practice and the larger healthcare industry. This includes the deployment and management of a HIPAA compliant infrastructure and security, as well as help desk support and includes break-fix operations.

The infrastructure offering may, or may not, include the actual data “pipe,” but always includes the sanitization of PCs, the installation of state-of-the-industry virus protection, commercial grade firewalls and providing the ongoing support of these components. This outsourced offering provides a secure network solution for optimum external connectivity while relieving the medical institution of the task of supporting multiple off-site locations, as well as dealing with external support issues that are not core to the mission of the in-house IT staff.

The offering can also include consulting services regarding the acquisition of hardware, software, implementation and support services, as well as technology refreshes.

Our target market for these services consists of private-practice physicians whose office staffs typically lack the in-house technical expertise to support mission-critical computer systems and associated hardware. In many cases, these private-practice physicians are affiliated with our larger medical facility clients, creating a logical foundation for Bluegate to establish and maintain long-term business relationships.

Conclusion

Electronic data communication networks have vast potential for enhancing the quality of patient care, mitigating the soaring costs of healthcare, and protecting patient privacy. These networks will enable physicians to write electronic prescriptions (eRx) and securely share patient electronic health records (EHR), including medical images, with other healthcare providers at hospitals, clinics, and individual physician offices. It will also give citizens better access to their health information, resulting in informed decisions about their care and a better understanding of the quality of care they are receiving.

In order to access and use this emerging healthcare information network, individual physicians must have the appropriate IT environment at their offices. The hospitals, where they admit patients, must also have deployed appropriate information systems. Technologically connecting these two very distinct provider communities is both the challenge and market opportunity for Bluegate.