Professional Medical IT Services and Practice Tech Support

Summary: Outsourcing medical office IT support is a cost-effective tech solution for small medical practices. In high-compliance organizations, protecting patient data privacy is of paramount importance. As more network-connected devices are added, there are more opportunities for cyberattacks and tech equipment failures. Discover how your practice can benefit from professional healthcare IT support.

Many doctors and small medical practices still do too much on paper and have not entirely digitized their workflow. In fact, some use paper files for medical records and write out prescriptions by hand. For this group, migration to a digital system seems daunting and beyond their tech knowledge. Also, many medical practices that have taken the leap have used a DIY piecemeal approach, resulting in an inefficient and unsecured system. Just because someone knows how to run a practice does not make them an IT expert.

Outsourced Healthcare IT Services for Small Practices

Working with a healthcare IT service provider can supply managed IT to ensure your computer system and all its devices are running smoothly, efficiently and securely. Some of the ways medical IT services can improve your practice’s functionality and cyber security include:

• Superior Cyber Security From the Start – As high-compliance organizations, protecting patient (and employee) private data from hackers is vitally important. Cyber thieves see medical practices as a rich source of valuable private data that can be used for direct financial theft, sold repeatedly on the dark web to other criminals or used for identity theft. A healthcare IT service provider can ensure your system is secured upon setup and during yearly assessments. They will configure your network to be secure and HIPPA-compliant. Also, with healthcare IT support, your system can be monitored for suspicious cyber events 24/7.
• Ensuring HIPPA Compliance – Clinicians and medical practices jeopardize their licenses if they are out of compliance with HIPPA laws. Healthcare IT outsourcing services for medical offices can proactively protect your practice’s patient data and ensure that all regulations are being followed. The costs and disruptions of a medical data breach are devastating and invite increased regulatory scrutiny. Professional healthcare IT support can keep you stay ahead of hackers to minimize the risks of and decrease the magnitude of a cyberattack.
• Reducing Computer System Downtime – Computer problems that create downtime can negatively affect your practice’s reputation with patients, vendors and clinical partners. A healthcare IT service provider proactively monitors and maintains your system to reduce the likelihood of unanticipated downtime. Also, being prepared for unplanned disasters (weather events or building issues), power failures, and potential data loss is equally important. Medical office IT support can ensure your data is safely backed up and stored in the cloud or offsite.
• Installing and Maintaining New Technologies – Professional medical IT services can keep your practice’s computer system updated with new technology. IT experts will also be aware of new cyber threats targeting the healthcare sector, how to protect against them, and the best new software and hardware compatible with the practice’s existing systems.
• Improved Administrative Processes – Professional healthcare IT services for medical offices can help you streamline many administrative tasks, making them faster and more efficient. Seamlessly integrated systems can automatically perform and update tasks across your practice, including functions such as appointment scheduling, electronic prescriptions and data populating automatically where possible.
• Easier Medical Billing – Billing processes for medical practices is more complicated than for many other businesses. Medical coding and claims submissions are intrinsic parts of your practice’s procedures for billing your patients. Medical office IT support can streamline your billing processes by integrating and updating patient data across your system, where possible.
• Strategic IT Planning – The role of healthcare IT consulting services in enhancing operational efficiency is significant and cost-effective when compared with hiring and managing an in-house employee to handle tech services. In addition, by planning your medical IT with a professional healthcare IT service provider, you can anticipate many of your practice’s IT needs going forward and adequately budget for them. The scalability of healthcare IT services allows your medical computer system to grow with your practice and reduce unnecessary tech expenditures.
• Staying Competitive With Other Practices – Seamless check-ins, automated billing, electronic prescriptions, appointment reminders and secure patient medical data access can contribute to your practice’s image in your community. Although top-notch medical care is the primary goal, anything that enhances your medical office’s image and the patient experience will help you grow the patient base, retain existing patients and get referrals.
• Improved Communication – Patient portals and text reminders have made patients feel more connected to their doctors and medical practices. Engagement keeps patients informed and the increased connections contribute to creating loyal patients. Many medical portal systems have their own apps, allowing people on the go to address their medical needs from their cell phones and tablets.

The Benefits of Managed Medical IT Services for Small Practices: Key Takeaways

Medical office IT support can enhance the growth of your practice and keep your system secure and data-compliant. The patient experience, office productivity and managing the safe storage of private data is too important to leave to DIY guesswork. Professional healthcare IT services can dramatically reduce the need for your practice’s clinicians and office staff to be distracted or thwarted by issues related to tech devices, data privacy HIPAA compliance, IT hardware and software and increasing healthcare cyber security threats.

In addition to repairs, installations and help-desk support, professional outsourced managed IT services can help practices document compliance for regulators and cyber liability insurers. Failure to properly maintain patient data privacy and a secure computer network puts your practice at a much greater risk of disruptive and expensive cyberattacks. These attacks can put a practice out of business or severely impact profitability. It is a risk not worth taking.