Focus: Managed Services for the Healthcare Industry

Challenges such as constantly shifting government regulations, growing staffing issues, increasing expenses, competition and rapid changes to the economic payment model are driving the need for a review of the industry’s technology needs and assumptions.  Significant change can often be challenging in any industry. But for both patients and providers it can be especially disruptive.  The fact also remains that these changes can also produce tangible benefits for all stakeholders.  Engaging a competent partner to provide assistance and expertise in managing through these changes will help your organization effectively address its technology strategy and navigate many of the potential negative impacts caused by these industry changes.

A competent managed services provider that brings relevant industry experience and expertise will help your organization address the shifting requirements in maintaining and monitoring critical technology platforms responsible for electronic health records (EHRs), lab information systems, patient billing, HIPAA compliance, practice management, HL7 interfacing with clinical devices, storage and physician mobility. They should be expected to help reduce liability associated with regulations impacting the industry by maintaining secure and compliant systems. If you select the right provider to partner with they should also be able to contribute to reduced healthcare costs, decreased downtime and improving the services and experience you provide to your patients.

So, how do you get started? 

Begin by researching a few managed services providers to see what they offer and the industries where they have experience. Their websites are an obvious starting point. Be prepared to also dig a little deeper into the range of technical expertise offered by their employees. This can often be found by the scanning the business partners listed on their website (Cisco, VMware, NetApp, etc.) or the industry / technical certifications they promote (Partner Certification or Specialization level, GOLD Level, CCIE, CCNA, etc.).

The next step, once you have identified a group of possible service providers, is to identify one service that can serve as a starting point to assist with your technology management strategy. For example, below is a list of the typical service offerings:

• Backup and Recovery - Provides redundant access and portability for critical patient information while also reducing exposure to HIPPA violations as outlined in this past blog post.
• Communications - Carrier solutions can address your telecommunications and networking requirements with voice, data and video connectivity built specifically to align with your needs.
• Engineering Support & Maintenance - Skilled technology professionals are available to supplement your internal team by assisting with network, infrastructure and application support as well as performing hardware upgrades and replacements.
• Mobility - Wireless devices are managed and mobile applications are secured and maintained to deliver increased efficiency.
• Network Monitoring and Management – Devices and components that exist on your network to manage communications and applications (e.g. servers, routers, etc.) are proactively monitored 24x7 to deliver the benefits outlined in this past blog post.
• Security - Protects information and applications utilizing technologies ranging from anti-virus software to firewalls and encrypted data transmission.

Limiting the initial interaction to a single service or two gives you the opportunity to begin interacting with a few managed services providers, learn more about their offerings and capabilities and make a more informed decision based on experience.