Choosing an IT Support Solution for Senior Living…

Now, more than ever, technology is being used to positively impact the Senior Living industry. Facilities can benefit from the use of various business applications, they can realize an increased return on investment, and they can track resident healthcare.  Given all these enhanced technology-based opportunities, a variety of questions are often asked, such as ‘Do we use an IT partner to help support our facility and its users?’  ‘Should we build an internal IT team?’  ‘Is there a secret recipe for developing the right support solutions for Senior Living?’  Questions need answers, and at Integrated Health Systems we are all about providing clear, honest answers.

If the primary focus of a Senior Living organization is to provide healthcare, then the focus should remain on healthcare.  Trying to manage IT within a healthcare organization, especially, Senior Living, is simply, trying to ‘be all things to all people’.  Market leaders within the Senior Living IT industry focus on their core competency…..software leaders provide software, not hardware……hardware providers focus on hardware, not software……IT support providers focus on support, not application software. Thus the need for a trusted IT support partner (not vendor).  Don’t know the difference between a Senior Living IT support partner and an IT support vendor? Stay tuned for future blogs….

The Senior Living market–which includes skilled nursing, assisted living, and independent living facilities, along with Home Health and Hospice agencies–traditionally have not utilized technology to monitor and track resident healthcare. In addition, typically, technology has not been used to operate and manage the business units within a Senior Living organization.

Once the electronic health record (EHR) demand increased, the need for planned IT support solutions became more critical for the Senior Living facility. The ability to document and analyze the resident health record is imperative to providing outstanding healthcare, and to manage the business operations, obtain financial success, and mitigate risk.  Today, the leaders within the Senior Living EHR application development market are primarily web-based vs. the traditional server-based systems.

Why does the web-based approach work better?

• It provides the market with a “pay as you go” solution
• It fits within a facilities’ monthly cash flow vs spending capital dollars for expensive software and server equipment
• It provides easy management and upgradability for the application and associated users

With the addition of EHR, the number of technology devices within a facility or agency potentially doubles or triples. In addition to the mere increase in the number of technology devices, the number of users within the organization now operating these technology devices also drastically increases.  This means the facility has added more technology devices and increased the amount of technology users, thereby increasing the number of hours during a 24-hour period that technology is active.  This creates a massive rise in IT support needs or requests.

With the increased number of devices and users, and with the ever-evolving HIPAA\HITECH initiatives, compliancy becomes an additional IT concern. Moreover, availability of internet circuit(s) to access the EHR application, is now in high demand.

With these drastic technology additions and changes within the Senior Living facility, the impact pressures on the IT support team becomes mostly overwhelming for those IT support professionals or for teams that are not properly trained.

Let’s examine a few Senior Living IT support scenarios.

Scenario 1:

The Senior Living resident relies on family and friends for technology assistance. Or, they may have access to a local ‘generalist’ IT support vendor, such as the Geek Squad or a retail store. This IT support solution is questionable, as there is no Senior Living technology expertise here.  There is no IT plan, no compliancy expertise, no understanding of the Senior Living industry, processes, or user requirements.

Scenario 2:

In this scenario, the facility has a small- to medium-sized internal IT support team. The internal IT support team could consist of one, or many, IT support representatives.  Often these teams include CIO’s, IT Directors, database managers, network administrators, application or web developers, and technical support representatives, for both remote and onsite support.  As the technology increases, so does the exposure for the organization, as more human resources are also needed to then support the massively growing technology needs.

Neither of the above scenarios provide the scalability or focus required to manage the IT technology infrastructure, devices, users, applications, or compliancy needs now established within the industry or facility. To best serve the Senior Living IT support needs, an outsourced IT support partner (not vendor) is critical to the success of the technology investment.

For the first scenario, a focused industry knowledgeable IT support vendor adds immediate value and knowledge, which can provide guidance to the facility and its residents. IT support becomes more about “how” the facility is supported vs. just being supported.

For the second scenario, a transition should happen. The existing internal IT support representatives, supporting users remotely and onsite, should be transitioned to learning the EHR and other business critical applications to further the use and efficiencies that these applications can provide the organization.   Effectively, saving money…..making money…..or creating better processes or efficiencies within the organization, by using these applications to the fullest extent of their capabilities.  Once this transition is made, an outsourced IT support partner (not vendor) can be used to increase user satisfaction, create happier user experiences, lower IT support costs, and better support response times.

Building an internal IT team is costly, risky, and creates a completely different business unit than “sticking with what you know”, i.e. healthcare. Partnering with the correct industry-focused IT partner (not vendor) can provide an IT support solution that is more cost effective, more responsive, and more scalable than building an internal IT support solution.

Finally—yes–there is a secret recipe to building a responsive, accountable, scalable IT support solution for any Senior Living organization……stay tuned….