As regulations drive up the cost of healthcare, you can keep technology costs under control with IT focused healthcare help desk software.
Nothing in healthcare is easy these days. Electronic medical records (EMR), clinical applications, patient portals, million dollar imaging assets, robotic surgical suites…from group medical practices to hospitals, regulations are forcing a change in the way the American medical system conducts business. Shortages of medical staff projected to last into the next decade and an aging population are forcing physicians to spend less time with each patient or work longer hours. The best answer to fixing the problem in the short term is technology, but in turn that increases the support load. The IT healthcare help desk has never been more important. When IT assets fail it could mean the difference between profit and loss. So how can an effective IT help desk solution save your healthcare practice time and money?
Incident Management. It is common knowledge but it bears repeating that a central repository for all your incidents is good practice. In a professional environment most of your clients are going to be on a common email system which, after telephone, is the most common way people will contact the help desk. iSupport brings optional channels to the table for incident management – live chat, web forums, and even social media channels. iSupport will automate the workflow of your incoming incidents, turning emails into incidents and using rules to auto-respond or auto-route information based on content. Maintaining a complete audit history helps you meet regulations for recordkeeping.
Asset Management: You have to know what is on your network and iSupport helps you do this. Our asset scanning technology examines your network and reports back to you what is found. Using our monitoring technology you can monitor key assets like your EMR servers and automatically create incidents when CPU utilization gets too high or available memory falls too low. iSupport inventories the software on your network as well as the hardware. Easily stay compliant on software licenses with iSupport.
Workflow: A good workflow engine like what is built into iSupport is really the key to staying on task and saving money. Our workflow engine can be as simple as a rule that turns an incoming email into a ticket or as complicated as a large scale project requiring approvals or sign offs along the way. iSupport provides complex change and approval workflow capabilities for adhering to ITIL standards.
BYOD: This is not as large an issue as it is other industries, but you will still have staff that wish to use their own device, especially when away from the office. iSupport’s advanced HTML5 interface works seamlessly across browsers, tablets, and smartphones. Our user portals can be placed outside your firewalls, or in DMZs, giving your users access to support without jeopardizing private healthcare information.
How iSupport saves you money.
No one likes budget surprises. iSupport is one of a handful of healthcare help desk providers that will guarantee your costs. It is common practice in the software industry to modularize software and upsell when you wish to add additional functionality. Nothing can be more frustrating than trying to enable a feature only to realize that you didn’t buy it. Our pricing is very competitive and we offer on-premise and cloud deployments.
- We own our asset and customer self-service technologies so you can manage as many assets and end users as you wish for one price. The only per-user charge is for support representatives.
- There is never a charge for managers that need reports or participate in approval cycles but don’t actually open, route, or close work items.
- Our licensing is concurrent. If you run a two- or three-shift healthcare help desk, you only need to purchase as many licenses as you need for peak logins.
- We make it very clear up front regarding the features that are included in each version. You can upgrade from version to version at any time without reinstalling any software. To compare our features in each version, click here.
- Our maintenance and support contracts are all inclusive and fixed for life. You will never be charged more unless you add support representatives.
- We offer free weekly online instructor-led training.
- We offer live agent support seven days a week (weekend support is limited to urgent priority or installation/upgrade assistance).
Many healthcare organizations have deployed iSupport over our 23-year history. In fact, we have more installations in healthcare than almost any other industry. The Cleveland Clinic, MS Baptist Health Systems, Cape Fear Valley Health System, Virginia Mason Medical Center, and Walter Reed National Military Medical Center are just a few of the leading healthcare providers that have used iSupport.
One of the most interesting healthcare deployments is the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). In addition to a traditional IT help desk deployment, the CDC was able to deploy iSupport to track an outbreak of highly contagious infectious disease a few years ago. The ability to rapidly deploy iSupport for short-term projects speaks to the flexibility of our tools. To further save your practice money, consider how iSupport could also be used by your facilities or HR departments.
To learn more about deploying iSupport for your healthcare help desk, visit our web site. To get a more comprehensive picture of all of iSupport’s features, please watch our YouTube overview below.
