No matter how you slice it, there are only so many hours in a day—and in healthcare practices, each one is precious. One way to enable clinicians and staff to spend those valuable hours on advancing patient care, strengthening population health, and improving their own skills, is by leveraging trusted partners to support your practice’s back office.
Increasingly, healthcare practices are turning to collaborative, reliable managed IT services organizations to protect them against both external (e.g., security threats, ineffective tech) and internal (e.g., low bandwidth, burnout) challenges. Outsourcing these critical—and time-consuming—IT responsibilities to a strong partner offers five key benefits to healthcare practices:
Reduced technology costs: Implementing cloud-based technology with the support of expert IT managers can bolster in-house and remote resources—and cut costs associated with hardware purchases, patches, remote configuration, technical support, and more. Securely migrating systems to the cloud ensures that providers and staff can securely share sensitive information. Additionally, a managed services provider can provide useful guidance for optimizing IT budgets overall.
Optimized processes for improved patient experience: A strong managed IT service partner easily identifies and prioritizes IT process improvements that help streamline administrative operations. A managed service provider can also support the technology that powers practices, so clinicians and staff can focus on providing smooth patient care without tech disruptions. A more seamless workflow translates to better patient experiences and outcomes.
Protection from security vulnerabilities: Healthcare practices don’t typically have the budget to support the operating cost of an extensive in-house IT team; certainly not one large enough to effectively protect, support, and manage their IT infrastructure. Managed service providers solve this by delivering a cost-effective way to enjoy the IT resources of a much larger organization. This approach ensures holistic IT risk protection and prevention, including:
- Complete security assessment of network and devices to identify and address risks
- Thorough training to help staff prepare for security threats and prevent common security breaches
- Comprehensive service to rapidly address threats, keep practices functioning at the highest level, and support business continuity planning
HIPAA compliance: Managed IT service providers protect sensitive patient information and ensure HIPPA compliance. Further, a good partner significantly reduces the demands on in-house IT by regularly assessing infrastructure for gaps or vulnerabilities and putting measures in place that ensure compliance.
Expanded bandwidth: When staff with an already full plate are tasked with overseeing IT, resources can be stretched too thin and practices can be even more vulnerable to security threats, technology issues, and system failures.
Conversely, relying on a managed service provider whose sole focus is ensuring IT infrastructure is efficient, organized, protected, and compliant allows internal teams more bandwidth to focus on tasks more critical to patient care. Using external experts to oversee and upkeep IT infrastructure reduces stress on both administrative and clinical teams and reassures them that the technology they need will work smoothly and safely.
Choosing to use an external partner can initially feel like a loss of control or some type of internal failure to perform—but it certainly is not. In fact, choosing to use a managed IT services provider gives practice staff and clinicians more control over their time, energy, and resources—enabling them to perform at top-of-license, serve their patients more effectively, and enjoy greater career satisfaction.