INDUSTRY DEEP DIVE
• PACS( Picture Archiving and Communication System)— System for archiving medical imaging.
• Chairside tech— Refers to the person assisting in the work done on a patient in the dentist’ s chair.
• DSO( Dental Service Organization)— An independent business support center that contracts with dental practices.
Understanding the software and hardware that your healthcare clients use and the services their practice provides also“ allows you to speak their language,” says Mike Farlow, CEO of ComTech, an MSP in Graham, North Carolina.
One of these healthcare-specific software tools is Electronic Medical Records( EMR) software— either cloud-based or hosted on-premise, says Farlow.“ The major EMR providers among our client base of private practice medical clients are Epic and eClinicalWorks. However, there are numerous alternatives based on specialties or specific practice areas.”
EMR is often used interchangeably with EHR, or electronic health records, Farlow says, though they do have specific meanings. EHR is more comprehensive than EMR and allows for sharing across multiple providers in the same network, he explains.
As for dental offices,“ they typically run on practice management software like Dentrix, Eaglesoft, Open Dental, or Curve Dental,” says Magan.“ These handle scheduling, billing, insurance, and records. For X-rays and scans, they’ ll use things like DEXIS, Carestream, or Planmeca. On the communication side, tools like Weave, Lighthouse 360, or Solutionreach help with reminders and patient messaging.”
Other commonly used software tools include practice management systems, billing and coding software, telehealth platforms, compliance tools, and risk management systems.
Increase Efficiency with the Same Prescription
Developing vertical expertise can also make you more efficient, Magan says. Since specializing in the healthcare industry, his MSP is“ able to fix issues much faster, because we ' ve seen them a lot.” Specializing also allows you the opportunity to understand industry-specific hardware much better, due to additional time spent working with and training on the devices. Because of that,“ when things break, it allows us to fix things quickly and prevent downtime,” Magan adds.
In addition, because industry-specific clients have similar needs, you can standardize your stack and processes between clients, says Zachary Hamblen, owner and manager of Orlando, Floridabased MSP Your IT Guys.
Farlow, however, cautions that while many clients use the same couple of software options,“ you’ re still going to run into those outliers, who are using [ tools ] that you haven’ t seen before.”
HIPAA: Not as Scary as It Seems
Perhaps the most intimidating aspect of specializing in healthcare is becoming an expert in HIPAA compliance— but MSPs say it’ s not as scary as it sounds.
“ At first it was difficult because we didn’ t know much about it, but after a lot of studying, we’ ve pretty much got it down pat,” says Magan.“ We do everything in-house, so it’ s definitely part of our package. But we offer two packages: one for someone who just needs the basics, and the full package with HIPAA compliance.”
You don’ t necessarily have to offer HIPAA compliance yourself, however.“ We partner with a group that offers HIPAA compliance,” says Farlow.“ We work tightly with them to make sure the technical specifications are met.”
Farlow also ensures that his MSP itself remains HIPAA compliant, just in case.“ Even though we ' re not technically a healthcare company, we do touch that data in some way. We also wanted to be familiar with the whole process.”
Your Healthcare Clients May Not Like the Diagnosis— At First
Convincing healthcare clients that HIPAA compliance is worth paying for can be challenging, according to Hamblen.
Often, he notes,“ The smaller businesses either don ' t have the money, don ' t want to spend the money, or don ' t believe that HIPAA is a source of concern, unfortunately. We’ re always telling them the same thing:‘ We’ re shoving you towards HIPPA compliance. We’ re going to make you better prepared. But you guys need to take the first step.’ For the most part, small businesses are not ready for that process. They don ' t have the staff, even if we’ re doing most of the work.”
MSPs may need to educate healthcare clients on the need to spend money to protect themselves and keep their practices running. Referring to his dental clients, Hamblen says,“ For many years, none of them had been introduced to the idea of security or having someone maintain their computer
Victor Magan CEO, Network Brainiacs
Mike Farlow CEO, ComTech
Zachary Hamblen Owner and Manager Your IT Guys
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