7 Tangible Examples of Managed IT Services in Healthcare
Healthcare organizations have certainly felt the shockwave of digital transformation brought by both the new patient demands and the pandemic. For example, IT teams undertook initiatives with electronic health records (EHRs), that allowed them to see patients faster and become more efficient. More recently, the pandemic pushed hospitals and healthcare networks to create digital front doors, virtual visits and expanded work from home policies.
In addition to this accelerated timeline for digitization, healthcare organizations are up against factors that put strain on their IT teams. These factors include tight budgets, cyberattack risk, complexity of data center modernization, cloud migration, scarce workforces, and higher patient expectations, to name a few.
Any one of these factors alone is challenging but pairing them together creates a monumental hurdle for healthcare organizations to take on digital transformations alone. Because of this, modern healthcare IT solutions often include as a service or managed IT services as part of their infrastructure.
Managed IT services in healthcare are gaining popularity because they equip organizations with the latest technology, while accommodating many common pain points CIOs, CTOs, and IT team leaders face. Managed IT offers benefits such as consistent support, predictable costs on a consistent basis, and a solid foundation for compliance regulations.
Navigating this as-a-service and managed IT service world can be daunting for technology leaders. ComportSecure specializes in connecting healthcare leaders with the technology expertise required to build modern IT systems. Our deep roots in healthcare and technology over 30+ years equips in-house teams to grow their businesses.
ComportSecure offers all the Managed IT services covered in this article, as well as the in-depth technology expertise to tailor these options for your unique business needs.
7 Technology Services Covered Under Managed IT in Healthcare
These Managed IT services are not an all-encompassing list of what falls underneath the umbrella of Managed IT, but they are a strong starting point showing the most common services that healthcare organizations are exploring.
1. Data Center Modernization and Consolidation
Starting with infrastructure as the basis for how an organization builds out its supporting applications is a smart way to approach upgrading technology systems. Many opportunities exist within the data center to simplify and modernize infrastructure, storage, backup, and disaster recovery. Many healthcare organizations are using IaaS (Infrastructure as a service) or technologies like HPE Greenlake that will help them scale as they need while keeping up with modern data center technology offerings.
Organizations are also looking more and more at Backup as a Service or enterprise cloud backup solutions to make sure they have restorable data if/when ransomware or other security issues arise in their environment.
2. Network Expertise
Networks are becoming more and more complex in today’s world. Increased security threats and massive amounts of data flowing in and out make it very important to have help when you need it. Having someone on hand to help you monitor and manage your network from day to day can help you implement initiatives like AI, routing intelligence and more. Things you simply don’t have time for. In addition, your managed IT Services team can bring new solutions to your door at your quarterly check-ins for you to consider. Understanding trends in healthcare networking can help you stay modern and efficient. For example, ComportSecure has received more requests for services such as Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) and Software-Defined Wide Area Network (SD-WAN) over the last couple years because they enable healthcare organizations to meet the increasingly virtual and instant expectations of consumers and staff, especially in the area of Medical Imaging. If you aren’t thinking about these things, a managed IT services company would bring them to your doorstep.
3. EHR Data Management
Oftentimes healthcare IT teams are rushed to go digital. They complete the baseline tasks but leave optimizations on the backburner. This is where an IT partner who specializes in healthcare comes in. Whether you’re on Epic, MEDITECH, or another EMR system, ComportSecure provides validated infrastructure to increase efficient use of these systems.
Innovative solutions such as HPE GreenLake paired with Epic-as-a-Service are revolutionizing how we interact with healthcare technology — instant access from anywhere; hardware, software, and expertise on-demand. Epic-as-a-Service brings the convenience of the cloud and the security of on-premise technology to drastically improve systems.
4. Medical Data Solutions
The volume of data that must be stored by a healthcare organization requires a modern medical data management strategy. Do you know where all your data is being stored? Do you know how much of that data is classified as PHI or PII? What worked in the past is not always what’s going to enable an organization to grow today. One of the biggest benefits of Managed IT services, especially when it comes to different types of data is having someone help you manage your data and help with solutions for archive vs accessible data. Why worry about testing windows, data backups and how to manage ransomware issues alone?
5. Remote Work Enablement
Telehealth is here to stay, so IT teams must enable network design and security to enhance it. A report by McKinsey concluded that the pandemic sped up digital transformation from 3–7 years to just a few months.
VDI and Desktop-as-a-Service (DaaS) are two Managed IT services that aid hybrid workforces in healthcare. These services allow organizations to retain control and ensure security when sensitive systems are accessed from remote locations. If the pandemic rushed your team into telehealth visits and remote workforce enablement, then now is the time to optimize the digital experience.
6. Edge-to-Cloud Security Protection
Cybersecurity is a broad and complex issue impacting more than IT. Healthcare organizations are a valuable target because of the sensitive personal information stored about patients. When choosing Managed security services, a multi-layered approach to solutions provides security measures across the entire ecosystem. This isn’t to say that ransomware attacks become obsolete, but it does mean they present less risk to an organization.
7. Healthcare IT Governance
At Comport, we understand the highly regulated and critical nature of Healthcare. Our ComportSecure Managed Services will align to your IT governance practices for all patching, incident management, problem management, and change management activities.
The complexity of IT and constant changes in technology make managing technology systems a never-ending hustle. Managed IT services from ComportSecure alleviate strain on internal resources by offloading routine workloads. We hold the healthcare industry expertise plus the big name partnerships to help with everything from strategy through implementation.
Meet with our team to explore how Managed IT services can help create your ideal future IT state.
Bill Flatley, Field CTO for Healthcare
Bill is responsible for technical strategies and recommendations for Comport’s Healthcare clients. His extensive experience includes four healthcare systems in leadership roles supporting Clinical Applications, Digital Health, and Office of the CIO as the primary liaison between IT and the business.
