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Over the past few decades, the healthcare industry has undergone a sharp transition from physical record-keeping to digital systems. Technology has changed the way medical providers operate, allowing for more efficiency, accuracy, and transparency.
However, it can be difficult for healthcare organizations to stay on top of their IT needs. When you’re juggling a full load of patients, the last thing you want is to be worrying about a system outage or cybersecurity threat.
This is where co-managed IT services can help. Co-managed IT services are a partnership between your in-house IT team and a third-party managed services provider.
Let’s take a look at how co-managed IT services work and how they can transform your business.
Key Takeaways
- Healthcare providers are often targeted by cybercriminals looking to access sensitive patient data from their systems.
- However, many growing healthcare providers don’t have enough IT staff to manage their systems on their own.
- With co-managed IT services, in-house providers partner with a third-party managed services provider.
- MSPs offer cybersecurity expertise, ongoing maintenance and monitoring, and compliance services you may not have in-house.
What are Co-Managed IT Services?
Co-managed IT services are a working structure where your internal IT team partners with an external managed services provider (MSP). An MSP is an organization of IT and cybersecurity experts that provide ongoing technical support for their clients.
Co-managed IT services are particularly helpful for healthcare organizations with small IT teams that are stretched too thin. Your MSP can help you with system monitoring, help desk support, software updates, and other routine tasks that your in-house team doesn’t have time for.
An MSP can also provide cybersecurity and compliance expertise that you don’t have in-house. They can implement new cybersecurity tools, create disaster recovery plans, and develop data management strategies for HIPAA compliance.
Co-managed IT services allow you to outsource the IT tasks that your organization struggles with, while still retaining in-house staff who understand your specific needs.
A co-managed IT setup is also a cost-effective way to expand your team. Hiring new full-time employees comes with a high price tag. In many cases, working with an MSP is a more affordable option that gives you access to a whole team of IT experts.
IT Challenges in the Healthcare Sector
Healthcare providers face unique IT challenges due to the large volume of patient data they collect. Here are some of the healthcare IT challenges that an MSP can help you solve.
HIPAA Compliance
All organizations in the healthcare industry must comply with HIPAA, which is a law that protects medical records and other sensitive patient information.
HIPAA requires any organization that works with protected health information to take appropriate security measures to protect that information. This includes encrypting communications, implementing robust access controls, and providing ongoing staff training on HIPAA best practices, among other things.
Failing to comply with HIPAA could have serious consequences for your patients and your business. If you do not implement appropriate security measures and your systems are breached, your patients’ secure information could be compromised and even lead to identity theft.
HIPAA breaches can also come with serious fines, ranging anywhere from $100 to $2.1 million depending on the scope of the violation. On top of that, a HIPAA violation can cause serious damage to your reputation, making it difficult to attract new patients in the future.
Managing Health Records
A big challenge for any healthcare IT department is keeping your healthcare records secure and organized.
Depending on the size of your practice, you could be managing health records for hundreds or even thousands of people at a time. These records need to be kept completely secure, but they also need to be organized in a way that doctors, administrative staff, and patients can access them when necessary.
This is a particularly big challenge for legacy healthcare providers, which may have long-term patient records dating back decades. Secure cloud-based platforms have become an effective solution for health record management, but it takes time to convert hard copies into a digital format.
Cybersecurity Threats
Healthcare companies are a particularly big target for cybersecurity threats due to the large volume of secure patient data they collect. Hackers also target healthcare organizations for internal financial data and intellectual property.
In the US alone, there were 725 healthcare data breaches in 2024 that compromised 500 or more records, including the massive Change Healthcare breach that exposed healthcare records of approximately 190 million people. These data breaches can be particularly costly and result in significant downtime.
Hackers are constantly developing new techniques to infiltrate secure systems. Healthcare providers need to implement firewalls, anti-virus and anti-malware protection, system monitoring, and other cybersecurity tools to protect against these data breaches.
Limited Internal IT Resources
Many healthcare organizations don’t have enough IT staff in-house to handle their daily workload. This leaves a small team struggling to handle help desk requests, system monitoring, and software management, without enough hours in the day to get it all done.
This can be particularly challenging when healthcare providers are growing rapidly and don’t have the support necessary to handle an influx of new patients. Tight budgets make it difficult to hire more team members or implement new technology to make the process more efficient.
What are the Benefits of Co-Managed IT Services?
Co-managed IT services help healthcare organizations operate safely and efficiently. Having this extra support on hand will give you the peace of mind you need to focus on what’s most important: providing reliable care for your patients.
Here are some of the benefits of working with a co-managed IT service provider.
Improved Security and Compliance
Even if you already have a cybersecurity strategy in place, it’s difficult for small teams to manage everything on their own.
Your MSP can help you implement new cybersecurity strategies that are tailored to your unique needs, or even reconfigure your IT systems for a safer approach. MSPs can also provide 24/7 system monitoring, helping you identify and stop incoming cyberattacks as soon as they happen.
On top of that, many MSPs are well-versed in HIPAA requirements and can conduct audits to ensure you’re remaining fully compliant.
Improved Patient Care
Having robust IT infrastructure in place can actually result in a higher standard of care and better outcomes for your patients.
With the right IT solutions in place, your doctors, nurses, and other care staff will be able to securely access the patient documents they need with ease, which helps them make accurate diagnoses and effective treatment plans.
MSPs can also help you set up online portals where your patients can review their health records and communicate with doctors directly. This helps patients stay informed and advocate for their health needs more effectively.
Cost Efficiency
Working with an MSP can be more cost-effective than handling all your IT needs in-house. Hiring full-time IT staff can put a strain on your budget, especially when you factor in the cost of training and employee benefits. An MSP can provide similar services at a lower price point.
For example, if you wanted to implement 24/7 system monitoring in-house, you would need to hire IT teams to cover three separate shifts. An MSP provides this service much more affordably.
Access to Expertise
With a small in-house IT team, you’re sometimes limited when it comes to knowledge and expertise. If your team doesn’t already have experience with a new technology or type of cybersecurity threat, it can cause serious operational roadblocks.
MSPs have a large team of IT, cybersecurity, and compliance experts on hand, so no matter what problem you’re trying to tackle, they’ll be there with a solution.
Scalability
An MSP can scale with you as your business grows. Service packages can be tailored to your healthcare businesses’ needs and current budget. As your IT support needs change, your MSP can adapt with you and make system upgrades as necessary.
Disaster Recovery
Even with a strong security strategy in place, it’s still possible that your company could experience a data breach or other IT disaster. Your MSP will help you put a disaster recovery plan in place so you can take action right away and mitigate the damage.
Having a formal incident response plan in place reduces the cost of a data breach by US$473,706 on average. This plan will specify exactly how you will recover data, re-secure your systems, and communicate with patients if necessary.
How Can Tech Advisors Help You?
Tech Advisors is an MSP offering IT, cybersecurity, and compliance services for the healthcare industry. With a co-managed approach, we’ll work with your in-house team to keep your systems running safely and efficiently.
You’ll get on-demand tech support, 24/7 system monitoring, cybersecurity training, compliance support, and more. For more information about how our team can help your practice grow, contact us today.
