Medical Practice IT Is About Protecting Your Reputation At All Costs (Published in Louisiana Family Doctor Magazine, Winter 2018)

The Louisiana Academy of Family Physicians has published our article in the Winter edition of  “Louisiana Family Doctor“. Between writing the article and when it was published, there has been a HUGE uptick in spoofed Fake Invoice scams. There is something you can do to protect yourself from the lost trust your customers will experience if they receive faked invoices from your company. From DKIM to user training there are multiple defenses you can employ to keep your companies name off the faked emails and we can help you get there.

Full Article Below.

Medical Practice IT Is About Protecting Your Reputation At All Costs

In my opinion, one of the biggest mistakes that people can make when thinking about IT within the context of their medical practice is to focus more on the “IT” part of the equation and less on its effect on the business itself.

Case in point: I was speaking with a friend of mine the other day, who also happens to run his own independent medical practice. We were discussing certain advancements down the lines, and things that I think might be a good fit for him, his people and what they’re trying to do.

We were hitting all the most common notes — increased productivity, superior collaboration and more – and then, when he continued to ask me questions, I came to a realization.

Everything that he was focused on was directed inward, towards his organization. This isn’t a bad thing – but your frame of reference also can’t stop there. You also need to think about IT’s outward affect, too. Namely, you need to think about the effect that technology can have on your own reputation – something that could not be more important within the context of the healthcare industry than it is right now.

The Delicate Balance Between Trust and Outcomes

To get a better idea of what I’m talking about, consider the fact that people are researching their health care professionals now more than ever before making a decision about which practice in particular to go with. More than 40% of customers say that information they›ve found via social media affects what they do and who they choose to do it with, for example. Another 41% of people said that they›re very likely to use electronic methods like social media to pick a specific medical
facility, hospital or even doctor.

So people are using technology to find out more information about you and your practice every single day. That information is going to directly contribute to whether or not they walk through your door. Based on that, it stands to reason that whatever they find can’t just be good. It has to
be incredible.

That, of course, is where your IT comes into play.

Healthcare in the IT space is about more than just giving your people the opportunity to do more with less. Even if you use IT to generate the desired outcome for a patient, but that patient had to wade through a cumbersome and unfortunate experience to get there, guess what – the latter half of that idea is what is going to directly contribute to how current and prospective patients see you from afar.

To get to this point, you really need to keep a few key things in mind. First, your IT and your organizational leadership must always be as closely aligned as possible. IT decisions must be strategic – which means that you’re making choices based on more than just the aggregate cost. They must be made by people who understand the techrelated needs of individual departments and the entire organization at the same time and those people must also rise up to become the most passionate defenders of everything you do from that point.

Likewise, IT is also how you account for some of the other major factors that affect the way people view your reputation – namely, compliance and security. If you’re still considering IT to be an afterthought, you’re probably not paying enough attention to how choices affect your compliance with governing bodies like
HIPAA.

But you also have to consider the fact that according to one recent study, the healthcare industry in particular was the target of 88% of ALL ransomware attacks in the United States in 2016. In the past two years alone, a massive 89% of healthcare organizations were breached in some way.
If someone has their sensitive medical information exposed, they›re not going to care that you›re in an industry that is the top target for hackers around the world.
They›re not going to get the nuance of the fact that there›s nothing you can actually do to stop that.

They’re going to know that you let them down. Because you did. Because you were still focused too much on IT’s inward effect on your practice instead of its outward effect on that practice’s reputation.

Again, you must never forget that your reputation is ultimately one of the most important assets you have. Information directly related to that reputation can have a direct and powerful influence on whether or not someone becomes a patient of yours, how likely they are to seek a second opinion, how likely they are to choose you as their specific provider in a long-term way and much, much more.

Your technology is your most critical weapon in the battle to protect that reputation at all costs. It’s about more than just the inward-facing effect on your organization in that the right technology is a way to provide better, more holistic and more valuable care. It’s about harnessing the raw power of that technology to create superior outcomes, ultimately creating a superior end-to-end experience and supporting that reputation you’ve already worked so hard to build.

About Dennis Bourn

Since 2007, Dennis Bourn and his experienced and passionate team at Bourn Technology have been helping clients all across New Orleans and the surrounding areas get the most from their technology. Those looking for more information on their offerings are encouraged to visit the Bourn Technology website to learn more.

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