Five ways to reduce your medical practice IT support costs!
According to an MGMA survey IT spending by physician owned medical practices increased almost 34% since 2010 with spending coming in at over $20,693 per full-time physician. So how can you reduce IT costs in your practice?
Get a competitive bid from another healthcare IT vendor
Even if you are happy with your current IT provider, you should still get competitive bids every 1 to 2 years. This keeps your current IT provider motivated to provide the best value for their cost while also allowing you to see what other providers are out there. A competitive bid will allow you to see if what you are currently paying seems out of line from industry standards. At Vanguard IT practice managers will reach out to us sharing their current IT support agreements looking where they can improve service and reduce costs.
Outsource IT support
If you are a practice that has full-time IT staff in almost every case outsourcing your IT to a healthcare IT support company can reduce your costs. Medical practice IT support providers can customize a solution that can share technicians across many practices so you only pay for what you use. So if you need 1 1/2 full-time employees you might only pay an outsourced vendor the equivalent of one full-time employee.
Consider cloud computing solutions
Cloud computing in a medical practice and greatly reduce your capital costs. Instead of refreshing server hardware every 3 to 4 years, you can pay a monthly fee to host your data in a HIPAA compliant data center. Hardware costs are built right in and usually reduce support and hardware costs by about 30% over the course of a 5 year period.
Invest in technology to reduce head count and overheard
The great thing about technology is it can be used to create operational efficiency. A patient portal coupled with automated appointment reminders can help you reduce staff count or assign those staff to areas that have a better ROI. A good healthcare IT support vendor will help you identify areas within your practice that might benefit from an investment in technology.
Select a vendor that focuses exclusively on healthcare IT support
There are thousands of IT vendors out there but choosing the right vendor for your practice can make a huge difference. Selecting a vendor that is focused squarely on the healthcare space and supports medical practice IT on a daily basis can offer you incredible value and insight into how to improve your practice. Companies like Vanguard IT Solutions and our partners have extensive experience and can share real world examples and ideas that can be used in your medical practice. Don’t rely on someone who doesn’t understand the healthcare field and are learning on your dime. Hire only healthcare IT professionals to support your medical practice.