Healthcare IT Professional Services: 3 Steps to Improve Healthcare IT

There are many challenges healthcare IT leaders will face in the complex medical industry. To be successful, healthcare IT professional services must help providers navigate confusing insurance channels, adhere to strict compliance requirements and regulations, and most importantly, ensure patient well-being.

It’s also critical for healthcare providers to have the technology, security, and procedures in place to ensure their doctors, nurses, and administrative staff can always provide the highest level of care, whether to patients in-office or via virtual appointments. If any of these healthcare IT professional services are not properly set-up and managed, it could be catastrophic for the provider, their patients, and their families.

How Healthcare IT Professional Services Evaluate IT Challenges

Have you evaluated your IT infrastructure, security measures, and emergency response policies recently?

Here are three steps you can take to gain insight into your environment and the essential technology functions that keep your organization running:

1. Analyze Your Security Posture
2. Conduct an IT Assessment
3. Hire a Strategic Consultant

1. Analyze Your Security Posture

Cybersecurity is one of the largest healthcare IT challenges as hackers are continuously targeting healthcare providers. Last September, a major US hospital chain had IT systems completely shut down across their 400 facilities by a ransomware attack. In the same month, a patient passed away when a ransomware attack crippled a hospital in Germany.

Security breaches can be dangerous and cause significant damage to your finances and your reputation. With healthcare IT service management, organizations can conduct a security assessment in your environment to uncover any hidden gaps that a cyber attacker could exploit to gain access to your network or extremely sensitive patient information, such as social security numbers, credit card numbers, or medical history. Additionally, working with healthcare IT professional services can help your organization stay ahead of potential security problems.

2. Conduct an IT Assessment

An IT assessment is a great way to get a snapshot of your current environment and determine areas you can improve. Healthcare IT service management resources such as Dataprise can provide a comprehensive vulnerability and stability assessment on your existing infrastructure. This assessment compares your technology and policies against industry best practices and provides you with a roadmap to help close any gaps. It also allows you to identify areas that may not meet the requirements defined by strict compliance regulations.

3. Hire a Strategic Consultant

Healthcare IT service management can help you better understand your organization’s technological strengths and weaknesses. An outside strategic consultant first works with you to understand your people, organizational goals, IT pain points, and budget. Based on their broad knowledge of your industry and their specific knowledge of your organization, they can provide you with concise action items to best align technology and processes to solve critical healthcare IT challenges.

Additionally, a consultant can work with you to map your healthcare IT service management to your strategic organizational goals and assist with developing roadmaps that support the latest trends in healthcare IT, including telehealth and remote care, artificial intelligence, and data management.  

Protect Your Organization with Healthcare IT Service Management

With the ever-changing landscape of technology, healthcare IT challenges are constantly evolving for healthcare providers. By taking simple steps and investing in your technology, you ultimately invest in your mission to provide the best patient care. Dataprise offers comprehensive healthcare IT service management for organizations of all sizes. If your organization could benefit from an in-depth analysis of its technology, security, and all their associated functions, contact us today to see how our healthcare IT service management can help.

Interested in learning more about healthcare IT professional services? See our Strategic IT Infrastructure and Cybersecurity Services and specialized healthcare IT services.

Editor’s Note: This article was originally published in April 2019 and has been completely revamped and updated for accuracy and comprehensiveness.  

Editor’s Note: This article was originally published in April 2019 and has been completely revamped and updated for accuracy and comprehensiveness.