Are you frustrated with technology that is supposed to make your life easier but it’s not? Is your computer infrastructure slow and goes down when you need it the most? Is your cost of computer support ridiculously high and you are tired of paying for issues that are still not resolved? Certainly, I could go on and on but unfortunately the truth is that your frustration and concerns are not unique to you; I have worked with countless medical practices that felt the same way. The good news is that many of them have stopped this cycle of stress, poor productivity, and uncertainty.
The Following Two Steps Will Help You Resolve Your Problem
1. Choose the Right Technology Partner
No matter how you use them in your organization, technology support vendors have the ability to make or break a business. Who you choose, how you choose them, and how you negotiate their contracts all play factors in how well the technology meshes with your practice and whether the relationship will result in a positive outcome.
When it comes to supporting your complex practice infrastructure, it is critical to shop for a vendor that is in the healthcare arena and understands your environment. Quality healthcare IT support should focus on people and processes first and then technology. A clear understanding of healthcare processes and the impact of technology on people is a foundation piece. It’s not so much that healthcare technology is different from IT in other sectors, but healthcare specific duties are often not incorporated into the workflow of your technology. Healthcare IT is not integrated with what end users perform. Doctors and nurses don’t sit in front of workstations to do their jobs!
2. Optimize Your Infrastructure
Today’s modern medical office is moving toward a complete dependency on technology, so keeping system downtime to a minimum is a necessity. While there are many different options for supporting your servers, workstations, software, and 3rd-party applications, using the right support and maintenance package makes a recognizable difference.
For the last 4 years we have seen the emergence of a more comprehensive support package called “Managed Services”. The right “Managed Services” package can save you money and has the highest potential to deliver on the promise.
Look For a Package That is Structured Similar to the Following
Pay a Fixed Monthly Rate for Your Total IT Support
While you’re current technology support option provides “break/fix” reactive support, there is no incentive to move toward a more proactive support model. Unfortunately, your support option profits your current vendor when your systems fail; therefore they have no vested interest to ensure that your systems do not fail in the first place.
A budget-able, predictable, fixed monthly rate can be set to support your infrastructure. Your IT support provider now works with your system through a proactive model to keep problems from coming up in the first place. You should be paying a fixed monthly rate regardless of the support issues experienced.
Take Advantage of Remote Support
You shouldn’t have to wait for your “number in line” to come up for your IT provider to come on site. With today’s remote technology support tools, your IT support company can monitor your technology infrastructure and provide support immediately. This means instant results for your problems and less downtime of your systems. Remote support should also have a reduced rate because it costs less for the IT vendor to provide.
Maintain Business Continuity
It’s best to think in terms of your business continuing rather than recovering — should a disaster occur. The ‘old way’ of protecting computer systems was to make a copy of all of the critical information, store it off site, and wait for a disaster to occur. Then, when the disaster occurred, weeks or months of labor were poured in to getting things nearly back to where they were. Contrast this with today’s method which is to get critical data encrypted off site as soon as it is created, to have complete images of the servers, and to test the arrangement quarterly. Today’s method further protects the business environment by creating back up servers in remote locations that can take over in cases of disaster — thereby allowing the business to continue uninterrupted.
Proactive Support and Maintenance
Your systems require security patches and other maintenance updates in order to keep you safe from hacker intrusions, viruses and loss of performance. A proactive and automated approach can be applied to system updates guaranteeing that you receive the latest updates as soon as they are available. Your practice infrastructure can be monitored 24/7/365 by automated systems and expert technicians that can provide remediation before problems occurs; drastically reducing costs of repair and eliminating any potential downtime.
24×7x365 Help Desk Support
Your IT support option should provide a 24×7x365 support option that provides access to application expertise as well as fixing your day-to-day issues efficiently. Whether your doctors are on call and need assistance to access the system remotely, or you need help running a report for an executive meeting the next morning, you should have access to someone to help. Someone that can support your equipment, someone with the understanding how to use your office’s hardware and software, or consulting services should be handled equally while providing flexibility for your after-hours support. In today’s business climate, many people are working at odd hours, and best-of-breed IT service companies understand that people need to get their work done, and are always available for your staff to call.
Virtual CIO and Strategic Planning
Identifying, implementing, and supporting your technology demands mastery of all the different technologies currently in use by your practice. It also takes insight into new business and technology trends to keep your infrastructure ahead of the curve.
Your IT vendor should become part of your team and provide long-term strategic planning, while maintaining the flexibility to address immediate company requirements. Look to your vendor to provide non-vendor specific non-biased consultation to help you wade through unacceptable solutions while helping you understand the pros and cons of each solution.
Vendor Management
At some point, someone in your practice has spent hours on the phone with a 3rd-party vendor such as PMS/EMR software, phone, or copy machine vendor and attempted to resolve an issue that is keeping your staff from being productive. Because your IT support is familiar with your infrastructure and can speak the language of your vendors, they can work directly with your vendors to offload this burden from your staff and resolve your issue as quickly as possible.
Infrastructure Documentation and Policies
In order to insure quick system recovery after failure it is necessary to keep up to date documentation describing your network, equipment inventory and settings. Your support vendor must keep track of your inventory insuring proper licensing and replacement of equipment. Furthermore, special computer policies must be put in place and monitored to ensure that your staff is using your equipment in a proper fashion.
Security Monitoring and Prevention
Hacker, virus, and disgruntled employee threats are real. In addition, HIPAA requirements and risks of litigation are reasons for your support vendor to actively monitor security and detect any intrusion before it becomes a risk to your practice. Proper delivery of IT should provide you with reports that monitor threats detected and threats eliminated, and ongoing efforts must be applied to keep your network safe.
Cost
You may think that the cost is prohibitively expensive; NOT at all. Today a Managed Service support package that includes flat-rate unlimited support options as described above may cost the same or less than your current IT cost.
You need to make sure that you are comparing apples to apples. In order to evaluate the cost of your current IT support, you need to include: what you pay your IT vendor, the time wasted communicating with your software, copy machine, and telephony vendors, the loss of productivity when your system is slow or down, and the loss of productivity due to use of the wrong technology.
Typically, a Managed Services support package is priced based on the number of workstation, servers and network equipment within your IT infrastructure.
Conclusion
Productivity equals profit for your practice, and you don’t want that profit to be eaten away by high and unpredictable support costs. The approach I am suggesting is a proven strategy.
Partnering with a support vendor that is familiar with the healthcare and medical office:
- Will resolve system issues quicker as they understand how your infrastructure works in relation to your critical software such as PMS\EMR, lab equipment, and etc.
- Will act as your own Virtual Chief Information Officer that can aid in strategic technology budgeting and planning to minimize uncertainty.
- Will yield a lot more value in terms of expertise, quality of work and efficiency.
Adopting a Fixed Cost Managed Service support strategy would:
- Drastically reduce cost of IT while keeping it constant and budget-able.
- Reduce down time
- Reduce risk
- Increase employee productivity and reduce stress
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