Dutch Healthcare Sector Under Pressure: SoftwareOne Survey Reveals Worrying Results

The Dutch healthcare sector is under immense pressure. Cloud and software supplier SoftwareOne has noticed that the IT infrastructure in healthcare is also facing many challenges. Government protocols must be adhered to and a move to the cloud is underway. The will to comply with digitization and security requirements is present, but “practice is still unruly.”
Software suppliers are allowed to determine for themselves what they meet, making the choice of a provider severely limited. A survey conducted by SoftwareOne revealed that an average of 202.9 applications are used per respondent, of which 44 percent are in the cloud. This percentage is expected to rise as the move from on-prem to cloud environments continues.
The survey also revealed that 35 percent of respondents are not sure where their data is located, while 4 percent have no idea. Despite this, 73 percent of those surveyed stated that “cybersecurity is a top priority within our organization.” However, 85 percent believe that non-IT employees have little knowledge of security, and 92 percent realistically say that “it is not the question whether we ever get hacked, but when.”
The survey also revealed a worrying level of disaster recovery. While it is expected that everyone has a backup in healthcare, only half of the healthcare institutions have a remediation plan. Even worse, only half of them are testing disaster recovery on a structural basis.
Romain Paris, Teamlead Healthcare & Education at SoftwareOne, says: “The continuity of the services and the protection of personal data are important points of attention in the health care sector. To steer this in the right direction, organizations must comply with laws and regulations, and invest in innovations. It is of course worrying that some of those responsible do not know exactly where which data is stored.”

The Challenges Facing the Dutch Healthcare Sector

The Dutch healthcare sector is facing many challenges. Government protocols must be adhered to and a move to the cloud is underway. The will to comply with digitization and security requirements is present, but “practice is still unruly.”
Software suppliers are allowed to determine for themselves what they meet, making the choice of a provider severely limited. A survey conducted by SoftwareOne revealed that an average of 202.9 applications are used per respondent, of which 44 percent are in the cloud. This percentage is expected to rise as the move from on-prem to cloud environments continues.
The survey also revealed that 35 percent of respondents are not sure where their data is located, while 4 percent have no idea. Despite this, 73 percent of those surveyed stated that “cybersecurity is a top priority within our organization.” However, 85 percent believe that non-IT employees have little knowledge of security, and 92 percent realistically say that “it is not the question whether we ever get hacked, but when.”

The Need for Improvement

The survey also revealed a worrying level of disaster recovery. While it is expected that everyone has a backup in healthcare, only half of the healthcare institutions have a remediation plan. Even worse, only half of them are testing disaster recovery on a structural basis.
Romain Paris, Teamlead Healthcare & Education at SoftwareOne, says: “The continuity of the services and the protection of personal data are important points of attention in the health care sector. To steer this in the right direction, organizations must comply with laws and regulations, and invest in innovations. It is of course worrying that some of those responsible do not know exactly where which data is stored.”
The Dutch healthcare sector is in need of improvement. Cybersecurity must be a top priority and all employees must have a specific level of access to data. Healthcare institutions must comply with the NTA 7516 and NEN 7510 certificates to guarantee careful handling of sensitive data in e-mail traffic and elsewhere. Disaster recovery plans must also be in place and tested on a structural basis.
SoftwareOne is committed to helping the Dutch healthcare sector meet these challenges. By providing cloud and software solutions, they are helping healthcare institutions comply with digitization and security requirements. With their help, the Dutch healthcare sector can become more secure and efficient.