Small medical, dental and other healthcare related practices face unique challenges and responsibilities in relation to their IT Support. Working with an IT support company for your healthcare practice is an important step to increase office efficiency, patient satisfaction, and compliance with regulatory agencies.
Whether you have a medical, dental, chiropractic, or other healthcare related practice, it is especially important to choose an IT Support company that will adequately serve your needs in order to properly safeguard patient records, maintain the level of network reliability and security and assure a timely and professional response to any issues that arise.
Here are some qualities to consider when choosing a tech support company for your medical or healthcare practice:
Guaranteed Response time. Make sure your IT Support provider will respond within a guaranteed time frame to any issues that arise, either from your staff or as a result of a monitoring alarm. Getting a guarantee on response times will insure that you are not waiting around while the server is down for someone to respond.
Rock-solid backup plan. Find out what sort of backup plan prospective IT firms are proposing for your infrastructure. We recommend asking the following questions related to server and data backup:
- How much downtime? In the event of the most serious realistic server trouble you could have, how long would you be down? A solid backup system will include instant virtualization of your backup image, meaning that, even in the event of complete server failure, your critical server(s) can be booted up and run directly from the backup server. Make sure that your new provider offers this. This allows your staff to get back to work while the old server is being taken apart, parts ordered and warranty repairs scheduled.
- How many copies? How many copies of your important data will be maintained by the IT support company? A good backup plan should include at least 2 local copies and 1 off-site copy of any critical data, which is the IT Support industry standard.
Security and Proactive maintenance. Consider what kind of security and proactive maintenance is included in your support plan. We recommend working with companies that provide all inclusive support for a fixed monthly investment. Otherwise, most IT Support companies only get paid when something breaks or needs upgrading. All inclusive support companies are incentivized to make the most of what you already have with regular maintenance to keep things running smoothly.
No obligation contract. Our personal favorite. In our view, an IT support company should be constantly earning your trust and future business. We would recommend avoiding companies that mandate lengthy contracts and stick with those that offer cancellation at any time with minimal notice.
Peter Billig is the founder of True North IT, a Boulder, CO based IT support company serving clients across Colorado, specializing in proactive, all inclusive IT Support for small businesses and organizations.
