Think about how difficult it often is to get your own IT operation up and running.
You need to find specialized employees, who then need to get trained and certified in many cases.
They need to research and procure hardware.
Hardware and software assets need to be setup, maintained, and upgraded as necessary.
Problems need to be troubleshooted.
The list goes on and on.
It's such a staggering commitment that many smaller healthcare practices simply don't have the time - they have patients that need to be cared for.
This may lead to a situation where they're digitally connected to a certain extent, but they don't do anything on the technology side of the practice particularly well.
That, in essence, is the issue that co-managed IT services were designed to solve.
Not only do they provide a more flexible service model than most practices are capable of that is tailored to the specific needs of an organization, but they also bring with them a wide range of additional benefits that cannot be ignored.
At its core, a co-managed IT services provider would be a trusted third-party organization that partners with the internal IT team of another entity, in this case a healthcare practice.
It's a more collaborative approach to information technology than a lot of smaller organizations in particular are likely used to.
Within the context of a healthcare practice, this can play itself out in a number of different ways.
The third party managed services provider will share responsibilities for IT tasks and projects with the internal team, for example.
The MSP may be responsible for maintenance and upgrades, which frees up the valuable time of those in-house employees to focus on more important, patient-facing matters.
The MSP relationship will also bring with it a level of scalability that is virtually impossible or a healthcare practice to achieve on its own.
Because they don't actually own the hardware or software assets they're using and everything is being provided by the MSP, services can ramp up or down when necessary.
This can be a great way to account for a sudden new influx of patients, or a particularly slow time of year.
Note that this should not be confused with fully outsourced IT, which is a slightly different situation.
There, all IT functions are managed entirely by the MSP. In the event that the healthcare practice maintains its own internal team, they will likely be limited in terms of involvement with day-to-day operations, and especially with regard to oversight.
Because of that, it's best to look at co-managed IT as more of a "hybrid" approach.
It's a way to maintain balance, allowing the internal IT employees at that healthcare practice to maintain control over the critical areas they need to, while collaborating on other responsibilities with the MSP.
The major benefits of this type of configuration also highlight the many different scenarios where co-managed IT is beneficial.
If you find that your medical practice lacks agility and responsiveness due to resource constraints, co-managed IT services can be a perfect opportunity to address that issue.
Medical practices with limited IT staff can leverage MSP resources during peak times or for specialized projects.
Co-managed IT services can also be a way to address any skills gap that may exist with internal employees.
Practices that need expertise in specific areas like cybersecurity or cloud services can access MSP knowledge without hiring new employees.
That money can then be funneled back into other areas of the practice where it can have the biggest impact.
This all leads to what for many is the most important benefit of all: the ability to finally achieve strategic growth moving forward.
Healthcare practices undergoing rapid growth can utilize co-managed services to ensure IT scalability without overextending internal resources.
Again, the major thing to understand about co-managed IT support is that you're not talking about replacing an internal team at all.
If your goal is to entirely eliminate the need for internal employees, you would want to go with a fully managed services approach.
Instead, this relationship will thrive based on a collaborative approach between both organizations.
At the onset of the agreement, the healthcare practice and MSP must define clear roles and responsibilities for each, making sure that both teams understand exactly what they're supposed to be doing, why, and when.
Internal IT teams will likely manage day-to-day operations, which can include patient support.
MSPs could handle more complicated projects, like infrastructure management, proactive maintenance, and more.
Over time, it will become clear that working with a co-managed IT service provider also lets healthcare practices leverage additional resources and expertise that they might not be able to achieve on their own.
Access to more sophisticated tools is probably the best example of this.
You don't need to go out and research what these tools are, train people on how to use them, and deploy them.
Instead, a co-managed IT support provider will offer state-of-the-art technologies and solutions that could be incredibly cost-prohibitive for internal teams to get on their own.
The same is true of training and development. MSPs can bring with them training sessions and other educational resources to help upskill internal staff, all while enhancing overall team capabilities along the way.
Over the long-term, one of the biggest examples of how this can play out comes by way of incident management.
In the event that something critical happens that disrupts service, internal IT teams can escalate critical issues to the MSP for faster resolution.
This will not only help improve response times by making sure that problems are being recognized and addressed quickly, but it can also help improve overall service levels as well.
The same concept holds true for monitoring and maintenance.
When an organization, like a healthcare practice, has its own internal IT team handling everything, more of then than not they have to take a "break/fix" approach to maintenance because they don't have the time or resources to do anything else.
This means that they simply wait for something to break so they can fix it.
MSPs, on the other hand, can proactively monitor systems - putting them in a better position to address a small problem now before it has a chance to become a much bigger one later on.
This will also enable internal teams to focus on more strategic initiatives, rather than just routine maintenance tasks.
To get an idea of just how beneficial this can be in practice, consider the example of a small private practice that knew it was lacking in terms of cybersecurity.
These are the types of issues where a "break/fix" approach simply will not do, because once you've suffered something like a cyberattack, the long-term damage has already been done.
That practice could partner with an MSP, on the other hand, to implement robust security measures to prevent those attacks from happening in the first place.
They could do this while still retaining total control over customer data management and other critical systems.
This relationship can play itself out in a number of larger ways, too - especially when it comes to regulatory compliance.
Healthcare practices are no strangers to industry regulations like HIPAA, and a co-managed service provider can help them in making sure that they don't wind up on the receiving end of any expensive violation or other fine that they might not be able to handle.
MSPs can also help with audits by providing documentation and evidence of all compliance measures that have been taken up to that point.
Having said all of that, it's also essential to acknowledge that not all co-managed IT support providers are created equally.
It's not about finding any old MSP - you need one with industry-specific experience who understands the risks that a healthcare practice is likely to face, as well as the opportunities that they can unlock with the right approach.
For the best results, it's always recommended that you follow best practices like the following when building your relationship with your co-managed IT support provider:
Of course, you'll also want to adjust your own part in the relationship as time goes on.
You'll get a sense of what it's like to work with the specific provider you've chosen, at which point you know exactly what you need to do to help create the best possible situation for both parties.
When most people think of a private healthcare practice, they wouldn't necessarily refer to it as a "tech-driven business."
It absolutely is, though - especially when you consider what the relationship between that practice and its patients is built on.
The modern patient experience depends on access to technology to guarantee the best outcomes possible.
Everything from scheduling to administration to the appointments themselves requires you to be as connected as possible to the fast-paced digital world we're now living in.
That requires an enormous amount of IT functionality that healthcare practices might not be able to put together on their own.
Co-managed IT services providers, on the other hand, can help get practices to that point.
They offer flexible service models that are tailored to your specific needs, not someone else's.
Finally, you can break free from the "one size fits all" approach to IT that has been such a constraint to this point.
They share responsibilities for IT tasks and projects with internal employees, freeing up their valuable time so they can focus on those matters that truly need them.
They even offer an exceptional level of scalability, allowing that practice to adjust the level of outsourced services depending on their precise needs at that moment.
As is true with most things, co-managed IT services are not for everyone.
But the benefits outlined above do go a long way towards proving that if you haven't already at least considered it for your own healthcare practice, now would be an excellent time to start.
If you'd like to find out more information about how co-managed IT services work for healthcare practices, or if you have any additional questions that you'd like to discuss with a team of experts in a bit more detail, please don't hesitate to contact us today.
