How Are Managed Services Making A Difference in Health IT?

The advent of managed services is no less than a boom for small and medium enterprises in all major industries. They help organizations in hiring specialized professionals for handling specific processes that help them streamline a number of day-to-day business activities.

Managed services have found applications in a number of sectors, including marketing, sales, finance, IT, and customer support. However, not much is discussed about the impact these services have on health IT. 

Medical institutions and healthcare centres are always in need of IT professionals who help them implement and manage platforms that help them organize their services and care management processes.

One cannot expect healthcare professionals to be well-versed in IT practices such as app development, data security, cloud services, etc. However, looking at the times that we are living in, healthcare centres are facing pressure they have never faced before.

The world has been struggling with a global pandemic and medical institutions are doing their best to ensure the safety and well-being of people across the world. In such a dire situation, it is almost impossible for health professionals to keep a track of every single patient and provide personalized care services to them using traditional techniques. This is where managed services come to the rescue. 

Dedicated managed services help healthcare centres to set up an effective digital infrastructure to help the staff members streamline their services and cater to the patients in a wholesome manner. Right from providing remote consultation to keeping track of a patient’s journey within the institution, managed service providers guide medical professionals every step of the way.

• Improved EHR Management

Today, medical facilities across the globe make use of electronic health records (EHRs) to keep a track of the patients’ conditions and treatment. However, if an institution is dealing with a number of critical patients that need dedicated care and attention, these records need to be managed effectively.

Managed services for health IT help medical centres to manage EHRs by designing and implementing a centralized system for the health professionals. 

Such systems put all critical data about every patient/donor at the disposal of the staff members who can access the same with a few simple clicks.

This way, healthcare experts can reach out to all their patients in a systematic manner, making sure that they receive the right care services at the right time.

• Cost-effective Solutions

Many medical institutions do not have the financial bandwidth to hire one or more IT professionals on a full-time basis for managing the IT infrastructure of the facility. In such cases, seeking the help of managed service providers allows healthcare centres to get the job done at a much lower cost.

This is because salaried IT professionals often demand high remuneration if they are hired on a full-time basis. 

For example, if a medical institution needs to implement a CRM platform, a full-time developer/consultant would cost them quite a fortune. On the other hand, if the institution avails of managed IT services for getting the CRM up and running, it would help them get the same job done at a much lower cost. 

• Obtaining Specialized Help

Taking the previous point forward, not every medical institution can hire a team of IT professionals who can cater to every single need of the organization. 

Even if they do hire a full-time professional, it is less likely that they are competent in performing all IT-related tasks for the healthcare centre.

By availing of managed services, medical institutions can hire dedicated professionals for providing specialized services for performing different tasks. This helps organizations to seek different professionals for carrying out distinct processes such as system auditing, consultation, app development, reporting, and much more. 

• Focus on Healthcare

More than anything else, a medical centre is required to focus on providing healthcare services to their patients and ensuring their well-being. Unlike most other sectors, a medical institution cannot afford to spend time hiring and training full-time IT professionals. Also, they cannot afford to get distracted from their core processes to handle their IT infrastructure.

Managed services relieve a healthcare centre from all these issues and allow them to outsource specific IT processes (or entire implementation projects) to skilled professionals. As these professionals are not affiliated with the institution and are already well-trained in their area of work, they can be trusted with the task to be completed while the healthcare professionals focus on their work. 

• Ensuring Data Security

Medical records of patients, the status of their treatment, and the history of the same come under highly sensitive data. A medical institution cannot afford to lose this data or compromise its security at any cost. Moreover, several healthcare centres have their own data compliance regulations to ensure the utmost safety of all sensitive records.

Managed IT service providers help these institutions in developing layered security systems that keep their valuable data secure and private. Processes such as end-to-end data encryption, approval process, and managing user permissions make sure that the records are not leaked, lost, or accessed by unauthorized personnel.

• Providing Remote Healthcare Services

The pandemic has made us realize the importance of digital platforms and their applications in working remotely. As healthcare centres are often crowded with patients and people are not willing to visit health experts personally for a basic consultation, medical centres can reach out to their patients at their homes.

By availing of managed services, individual healthcare experts and/or medical centres can develop powerful apps that help their patients or prospects to obtain online consultation from anywhere and at any time. 

Right from referring to valuable resources to booking online appointments, these applications make it easier and more flexible for the healthcare experts and the patients to interact with each other and exchange valuable information. 

The Final Word

The scope of managed services in health IT is immense. It creates a win-win situation for both the seekers and providers of healthcare services when it comes to interacting with each other effectively. It is always advisable for medical institutions to seek managed services to leverage their healthcare facilities.