I often post stories of our customers, the industry, HIPAA, policies, best practices, etc. Understanding IT support is no small task. I have been providing IT support in some capacity for the last 30+ years, and I’m not even sure I understand it! We used to say “anything that plugs in is our responsibility.” The other day, one of our techs fixed a Keurig! Frankly, I think that was very sweet of him! Is it covered under the maintenance contract? No. He basically said “I will take a look at it”, and the genius that he is, was able to fix it. We chuckle about this in the office, but in actuality, were happy to help.
I often say, “we are the solution, not the problem”. The real problem is that people lump IT all into one. The software you use, the EMR, the phones, faxes, etc. all seem to fall under IT. We support the network as a whole, and are happy to help with things that don’t fall under the normal IT contract. In 2018, we find that more and more, we support, or help support things that don’t fall under the IT maintenance contract. We want to help our clients, so of course, we will get involved.
Our greatest point of failure is when it falls our of our hands. For example, let’s say your EMR is not saving patient data. That would fall under the EMR vendor whether it be eCW, Allscripts, Next Gen, etc. Tier3MD will place a ticket, but the end user does not know we are waiting for the vendor. They think we are not fixing it fast enough. The perception is that we handle everything. We do, but sometimes we just need to work with the vendors.
Understanding IT support will help us help you. We want to be the best we can for you, and take as much off your plate as possible. We will never tell you “no, we don’t do that”. We will work with whatever vendor we need to in order to get your systems up and running. Understanding IT support can lessen the frustration, and help streamline the process.