E-BOOK: Managing IT Services in the Modern Dental Practice
by Samantha Negraval
What Dental Practices Should Expect from Their IT Service Provider
When we look back, 2020 will be the year that forced us think more critically about emergency scenarios. We’re not out of the woods just yet. The dental profession has been grappling with the COVID-19 pandemic since March, and now as we approach late summer, we enter the height of hurricane season. Earlier this month, Tropical Storm Isaias rolled up the East Coast, knocking out power to millions of residents and businesses with high-force winds.1 As Mother Nature continues to present unforeseen setbacks, it’s important that dentists learn to control what they can. One of those critical control areas is dental information technology (IT).
Emergency preparedness in dental IT was a key focus in the recently published Dental Product Shopper e-book, “Managing IT Services in the Modern Dental Practice.” The e-book opens with a hypothetical scenario: you are faced with a crisis and need to make an important phone call. Who do you want to answer on the other line?
First, let’s consider what an emergency might look like in dental IT. Maybe your local server was compromised in a natural disaster, or perhaps thieves broke into your office and removed computer equipment. Keep in mind that while cyber-crimes have gained a great deal of media attention over the past few years, physical theft was the most common data breach in the most recent 10-year window.2 These real-life scenarios put protected health information (PHI) at risk, and worse yet, in some cases constitute a HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) violation.
Despite recognizing these risks, many busy dentists aren’t always proactive. You didn’t go to school to become an IT manager, and your greatest passion is helping patients maintain good oral health. But you must also recognize your patients have put their trust in you to secure your network. In turn, you should feel confident about your IT systems and infrastructure. Most dentists can’t manage this alone, so that’s why they place their trust in an IT service provider, like TechCentral by Henry Schein One.
TechCentral focuses exclusively on dentistry and provides multiple managed IT services, including hardware maintenance, backup management and monitoring, and proper operating system and application patching, to help dentists mitigate risks to their practices. Behind the advanced management tools and security updates are highly skilled technicians who are proactive about monitoring your systems. They often call you before you even realize there is a problem, while also being available to answer IT-related questions about your dental technologies and software.
TechCentral also helps mitigate an easily overlooked threat to practice network security: human error. A study found that the human element is a root cause in 52% of security breaches.3 End-user failure to follow policies and procedures was the top human error source. To help minimize human error, TechCentral provides a “hands-off” hardware-as-a-service offering, OmniCore, which is designed as an all-in-one, IT network-in-a-box. After installing OmniCore, TechCentral takes care of the maintenance remotely. Included with OmniCore is TechCentral’s Hybrid Backup Service; a redundant, remotely managed backup and recovery solution designed to take the worry and hassle out of the data backup process.
Staying Informed on IT Best Practices
Even when relying on an IT service provider, dentists still have the responsibility of staying informed and making the right decisions for their practice. As the saying goes “you don’t know what you don’t know.” A good place to start is by testing your IT service knowledge, with some key questions outlined in the e-book. The e-book also provides insight from both sides of the IT service equation: a technology-savvy customer, Dr. Gary Kaye of Kaye Dentistry PLLC, and a dental IT service provider, Howard Grainger, Associate Product Manager at TechCentral.
You’ll be better-informed by learning the answers to these 5 important questions:
1. What does good IT service look like in a dental practice?
2. What can you do now to disaster-proof your network?
3. What do you need to keep your practice network secure?
4. What do you need to work remotely in the event of future workplace shutdowns?
5. Why is it better to work with a dental-only IT service provider as opposed to a local IT company?
Download the e-book to find out more.
Sources
1. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/08/04/isaias-track-forecast-radar-flooding-tornadoes-threat-tuesday/5579614002/
2. Dolezel D, McLeod A. Cyber-Analytics: Identifying Discriminants of Data Breaches. Perspect Health Inf Manag. 2019;16(Summer):1a. Published 2019 Jul 1.
3. CompTIA. 2015 Trends in Information Security. https://www.comptia.org/content/research/trends-in-information-security-study
This article is paid for by Henry Schein TechCentral. Certain components of the products or services described above are provided by third parties. Henry Schein One LLC and its affiliates are not responsible for, and expressly disclaim, all liability for damages of any kind arising out of the use of those third-party products or services.