You became a doctor to save lives, not to mitigate a data breach in patient records.
You studied dentistry to give people beautiful smiles, not to search for lost paperwork.
Your practice is about health. It’s about people.
But when it comes to safe and effective administration—and the ability to focus on what you were trained for—it has to also be about tech and computers.
You don’t have to work at Google or a company with countless servers for IT to be applicable. IT support is essential for medical offices—especially because independent practices lack the built-in IT support hospitals provide.
It’s liberating to have your own medical office and make your own managerial decisions. But those decisions should include best practice tech solutions.
IT consulting and managed IT services are two important options to consider. They streamline your administrative work into organized file sharing. They install the best scheduling software. More importantly, they maintain your patients’ Protected Health Information through top-notch cybersecurity.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recognizes that increased reliance on technology raises cybersecurity alarms and potential harm for your patients and your practice. We know that HIPAA compliance is non-negotiable, and with Health Information Technology and implementation of HITECH, we need IT soldiers guarding against data breaches.
It’s not just a matter of protecting our patients’ health. We have to protect their personal data, too. And the last thing we can afford from a HIPAA audit is a patient privacy violation.
But protecting against computer breaches doesn’t mean you should reach for an ancient Rolodex or bring back those messy file cabinets. We don’t want to go backward while fretting over technological advances.
Technology is only a threat when treated carelessly. Otherwise, it makes privacy safer and daily administrative work easier.
Your patients receive better care and customer service when you can quickly and easily access their records and scheduled appointments. They sleep soundly knowing their personal information is protected. And your coworkers work seamlessly between shifts when they can share the same files.
Computers and IT support make all of this possible…and more.
And it’s not just about facilitating paperwork and hunkering down against hackers. IT agencies install and manage building security to help with increasingly crucial contact tracing.
Coronavirus has proven an ongoing threat. But by using IT to monitor access control and security cameras—and double-check results through scheduling software—you can identify and quickly notify patients at risk of COVID-19 exposure.
It’s still easy to be of the mindset that technology is best suited for web designers and data scientists. To be fair, medical issues seem the furthest thing from subjects like software, computer programming, and shared servers.
But don’t be mistaken.
IT isn’t one for the sidelines. It’s a top player.
Treat it as seriously as your most critical patient.
