5 Solutions to IT Challenges that Freestanding Emergency Centers Face

Freestanding emergency centers (FECs) are saving lives in areas where traditional hospital emergency rooms cannot survive. With a smaller footprint and smaller budget than traditional ERs, they cost less to build and run. At the same time, they offer identical, life-saving services to hospital emergency rooms, complete with 24/7 availability, specialists on-call, and advanced medical capabilities.

Servicing the IT needs of these centers can be a challenge. In fact, the IT needs of FECs are complex and demanding. However, a seamless, integrated IT infrastructure is critical to the survival of the FECs. That is why Centre Technologies and partners have developed and implemented innovative solutions for healthcare organizations. Here are some of the challenges that healthcare IT managed service providers like Centre Technologies can address for freestanding emergency centers.

5 IT Challenges and solutions in the Healthcare Industry

Hiring in-house technicians to be available 24/7 is expensive.

Saving lives is the number one priority of FECs. However, in order to do so effectively, they need to be able to work with a smaller budget than traditional hospital ERs. Operating on a lean budget is particularly important in areas with high rates of uninsured individuals and low incomes.

Faced with financial constraints, FECs must provide cutting edge IT services without hiring in-house technicians to be available 24/7. These emergency centers need an IT infrastructure that can immediately deal with problems, offer uninterrupted uptime, handle frequent staff transitions, maintain patient data security, and more. However, hiring in-house staff to implement this infrastructure is simply too expensive.

• SOLUTION:
  Healthcare IT managed service providers charge one low monthly per-device fee for IT support day and night. Healthcare IT managed service providers offer a solution for FECs. They charge one low monthly per-device fee for IT support day and night. For three locations of the Austin Emergency Center, for example, healthcare IT managed service provider Centre Technologies and partners were able to offer the highest level of IT support for extremely affordable prices. Those cost savings from an experienced healthcare IT managed service provider can mean the difference between surviving and closing down for many FECs.

Network and computers need to work fast, all the time.

Healthcare, and FECs in particular, are unique in that they cannot tolerate any downtime when it comes to their IT infrastructure. Downtime can be the difference between life and death for patients. Outsourcing IT can be risky, because it increases the response time when problems arise. In a crisis, waiting even a few hours for a technician to arrive and resolve an issue can put patient lives at risk.

• SOLUTION:
  Healthcare IT managed service providers monitor, manage, and maintain systems proactively to cut down on issues, as well as reactively to quickly address any problems that may arise. Healthcare IT managed service providers offer a solution in the form of proactive management of IT systems. Rather than reacting to issues, Centre's Managed Services model identifies and addresses them before they occur. We are available any time of the day or night, and can even send local technicians armed with specific instructions on resolving the problem to rapidly get the system up and running again.
  
  

FECs operate the same as a full-blown emergency room at a hospital but within a smaller footprint.

Freestanding emergency rooms offer identical services to hospital emergency rooms. However, they do so with a smaller budget and in a smaller space. Adding a full-blown IT department in-house is simply unrealistic when it comes to maintaining this smaller footprint.

• SOLUTION:
  Healthcare IT managed service providers are located off-site and do not take up space or precious resources within the building. Healthcare IT managed service providers offer a solution by being located off-site. As such, they do not require space or resources within the FEC. This leaves space and resources to be dedicated to the other critical functions of the FEC, and allows the FEC to maintain the small footprint that allows it to succeed at saving lives within its community.

FECs need to create procedures to accommodate frequent staff transitions.

In order to provide life saving care around the clock, FECs need to maintain a large staff. The frequent transitions required by this large staff means that FECs need to possess intelligent, thoughtful procedures and a flawless IT infrastructure.

• SOLUTION:
  Healthcare IT managed service providers typically already have processes in place to streamline staff onboarding and offboarding. Healthcare IT managed service providers do not believe in reinventing the wheel. Instead, they use processes they already have in place to streamline the onboarding and offboarding of staff. The result is a process that seamlessly allows staff to transition whenever necessary without any hiccups in the IT infrastructure or patient care.

FECs need to be able to hire and manage IT experts who understand the healthcare industry and their unique needs.

The IT needs of the healthcare industry are unlike those of any other industry. In order to meet these needs well, FECs need IT experts who understand the industry and its unique needs. Not just any IT service provider will do.

• SOLUTION:
  Healthcare IT managed service providers often specialize in and are successful at servicing specific areas and know how to solve and prevent problems, address compliance issues, work with specialized software, and understand the operations of organizations within those industries.
  
  Healthcare IT managed service providers have expertise specifically in the healthcare field. When it comes to IT managed services for healthcare, we have experience helping multiple FECs find and integrate IT solutions for their business models. As a result, we can help to proactively prevent problems, make sure the FEC is in compliance, and more.

IT Support for Freestanding Emergency Centers

FECs face unique challenges when it comes to their IT needs. That is why they need the assistance of healthcare IT managed service providers like Centre Technologies. We implement solutions that save money, reduce the FEC’s footprint, provide necessary uptime and support, seamlessly onboard and offboard staff, and cater to the unique needs of the healthcare industry. Contact Centre Technologies today to support your Freestanding Emergency Center!