Did you catch the “Going Analog” episode in season 2 of HBO Max’s The Pitt? If so, then you know exactly what we’re talking about in this blog. If not, we won’t ruin it for you. Ironically, University of Mississippi Medical Center suffered a cyberattack the same day that episode was aired.
Both in The Pitt and at the hospital in Mississippi, patient care was scarily affected because healthcare today is dependent on digital technologies. So when a workstation freezes at check-in, an EHR won’t load, there’s a compliance question that nobody in the office can confidently answer or everything is shut down because of a cyberattack, patients suffer and staff struggle. It can quickly become a literal life or death matter.
That’s the part that makes IT support for medical and dental offices a different conversation than IT support for most other small businesses.
HIPAA Reaches Further Than Most Practice Owners Realize
The people running a medical or dental office know HIPAA laws. What tends to catch them off guard is how much of their everyday technology it touches.
Email. Cloud storage. Backup systems. The workstations at the front desk. Remote access for staff working off-site. If it handles patient information in any form, HIPAA’s technical requirements apply to it. That’s a wider net than most practices expect when reviewing their compliance protocols and checklists.
A managed IT provider with healthcare experience helps get those systems configured correctly from the start with encrypted data, controlled access, audit logs and secure transmission of electronic health records. The goal is that compliance isn’t something you’re scrambling to prove. It’s just how your systems run.
Smaller Practices Are Prime Targets
There’s a common assumption that cyber attackers go after hospitals and large health systems. They do. But smaller practices get hit too because they’re assumed to be an easier target with fewer defenses in place.
Patient records are valuable to criminals. And the entry points into those records that contain very personal and private health, insurance and payment data are rarely Hollywood-level dramatic. They are phishing emails that look like an insurance notice, software that hasn’t been updated in months and passwords reused across multiple accounts. A good IT partner closes those entry points with a combination of technology, ongoing monitoring and best practices education.
When Systems Go Down, “Inconvenient” is an Understatement
A few hours of downtime at most businesses means a frustrating afternoon. At a medical or dental office, it means providers working without records, scheduling that backs up and doesn’t catch up easily and billing that sits until systems come back online.
The right IT setup means systems are being monitored continuously, not only checked when something is at risk or goes down. It also means having a backup and recovery plan that’s been tested, so restoring operations after an incident is quicker.
Medical and Dental Software Has Specific Needs. Your IT Provider Should Know That.
Huge health systems have dedicated IT departments on call around the clock. Smaller medical and dental practices also have technology like EHR platforms, dental imaging software, practice management systems and billing tools, but without the in-house tech support. These programs aren’t the kind that a general IT provider knows well. They have their own update schedules, compatibility requirements and quirks.
Practices that work with IT providers who have healthcare experience tend to have fewer of those surprise moments. And when a software issue does need to be resolved with a vendor, having an IT partner who can make that call and speak the language saves a lot of time.
Choosing the Right IT Partner for Your Practice
The right outsourced IT support for a medical or dental practice should be able to speak specifically to HIPAA’s technical requirements, have working familiarity with the platforms your practice depends on and offer proactive support.
Perhaps just as important, they should be easy to talk to. Your office manager shouldn’t need a technical background to get a straight answer about what’s being done to protect patient data. If your current IT setup feels like it was built for a different kind of business or like it’s been held together with workarounds longer than anyone wants to admit, reach out to Invision.