Specialty Healthcare Practice and ITS Have a Shared Vision for Success

Background

Thorp Bailey Weber (TBW) Eye Associates, LTD (www.tbw-eye.com) is a medical and surgical practice that has provided high quality eye care since 1970. The practice offers comprehensive eye care with special attention to cataract surgery. Additionally, TBW offers LASIK, contact lens fittings, glaucoma, diabetic eye disease, macular degeneration, dry eye, blepharitis and low vision treatments.

The Challenge

Prior to partnering with IT Solutions, Thorp Bailey Weber outsourced their technology support and during this time ran into a number of challenges, including: 

• Slow response times on user issues negatively affecting staff productivity
• Reactive support with limited preventative maintenance or strategic planning
• Very little accountability causing conflicts between the IT vendor and EMR vendor
• Poor communication leaving TBW guessing about work performed and associated costs
• Inadequate data backup solution that was increasingly difficult to maintain
• Lack of depth necessary to support a practice of their size and complexity

With little to no real progress or path to resolution, Practice Administrators found themselves spending significant portions of their days dealing with recurring problems on the network. They soon realized that it was time to seek a new partnership. 

The Solution

Thorp Bailey Weber hired IT Solutions to replace the previous vendor and to take over the practice’s network management and support.

The transition began with applying IT Solutions’ network standardizations and processes, ensuring proper compliance with industry best practices. Under the ITS SharedVision MD Advanced plan, TBW has complete support for servers, firewalls, routers, backups, as well as full maintenance and monitoring on all user PCs and laptops. A reliable backup solution has been implemented so that all servers are replicated offsite to the ITS data center. In the event of a major outage or disaster, TBW still has access to their network and can continue to conduct business as usual.  

IT Solutions closely monitors the network and performs daily maintenance — including patching, anti-virus, anti-malware and spam control — protecting the practice from external security threats and ensuring optimal performance from inside or outside TBW’s office at all times.

In the rare occasion a problem does arise, TBW calls on IT Solutions’ talented help desk and field engineering teams for 24x7 remote and on-site support. The help desk leverages an industry-leading ticketing system with clear documentation on every issue and related correspondence.

As with all SharedVision clients, TBW has a dedicated, Virtual Chief Information Officer (VCIO). The VCIO performs many account management functions, but also serves as a true CIO, developing long-term strategy, collaborating on budgets, attending technical committee and board meetings, and making recommendations to ensure a stable, secure technology infrastructure.

The Return

IT Solutions’ strategic and preventative approach to managed IT has proven to be much more in line with the goals at TBW. The initial network onboarding and implementation of ITS best practices alleviated many of the recurring end-user issues right away.

Working with a larger, experienced team of consultants has proven to be an asset to TBW. Response times have been cut down dramatically, and even complex issues are resolved in a much more efficient manner.

Communication has greatly improved and the presence of the VCIO role has made both immediate and long-term impacts. With an actual ticketing system and paper trail in place, there is no more guessing about the status of issues nor surprise invoices about time or costs spent.

Now with a smooth-running network, there are far less user complaints and TBW staff is overall much more productive. TBW’s Practice Administrators can focus on organizational responsibilities and ensuring delivery of the highest quality care. 

“Partnering with IT Solutions has been a positive change for the entire practice,” said Gina Klepadlo, Practice Manager at Thorp Bailey Weber. “Their expertise in supporting healthcare clients of our needs has been evident since day one. Communications are frequent, help desk support is fast, and our network is more reliable than ever before. With ITS as a partner we’re able to refocus our efforts on the strategic growth of our practice.”