High-tech matchmaking

Everyone outside of the IT profession has a certain amateur technology skill level, from the plugged-in enthusiast pining for the newest gadget as soon as it’s released, to the techno-phobic curmudgeon who eschews most technologies as new-fangled frippery.

The people who work in your practice fall all along this spectrum. Considering that fact, the busy nature of a medical office, and the ever-increasing pressure to adopt paperless habits, the IT professional you need and want will have to know how to serve your practice competently and diplomatically, despite these challenges. But how do you find such a gem?

One solution is to create your own. Gateway Medical puts a high value on Carrigan because he’s become exactly what they need. He was a serendipitous find. Carrigan’s mother worked in Gateway’s billing office for a decade. Her son started taking care of the practice’s IT needs on a part-time basis a few years back while he was still in college. “We knew Vince, and we knew his work ethic,” says Rodgers. Carrigan’s degree in finance, his MBA, and his impending MS in information systems give him a well-rounded skill set to meet Gateway’s complex IT needs.

Rodgers appreciates Carrigan’s intimate knowledge of his group’s operations: “He’s a very marketable person, and we’ve had to be very competitive with things like salary. … He’s one of our highest paid employees at this point, other than the physicians — and well worth it. If I had to go out and hire somebody, they aren’t going to know the nuances of the organization and the personalities; Vince does know.”

Another answer to your IT needs is to hire right. This is a challenge in any industry, but in the IT world, job requirements shift as quickly as the latest technologies. And within the medical world, new tech tools are entering the marketplace at breakneck speed. “IT is not at the bottom of the company any longer, just banging out zeroes and ones,” says Simmons. “Before, it didn’t matter if [your IT person] understood the flow of the front desk. It’s not that way anymore.”

Your IT person should possess at least a working knowledge of EMRs and practice management systems. “If I don’t understand how that button will flow and how it integrates with the rest of the clinic, I could really mess things up,” says Simmons, who dedicated hours to understanding the practice’s work flow when he first came on board.

Also, because IT has become much more mainstream, it’s critical that your techie also knows how to communicate, says Simmons. “You can always find someone who can do the IT side, but you also need someone who can articulate it.”

This means using accurate but layman-friendly terms, making eye contact, using humor appropriately, and knowing when and how to push an issue for the good of the practice. Simmons remembers one time when he was schooling all of his practice’s physicians on Dragon Naturally Speaking, a speech-to-text translator. One physician was proving to be a particular challenge, and Simmons had to schedule training sessions for him four or five times. Simmons finally told him, “‘Hey, Monday you’re going live.’ … He did, and it went fine.”

Should you outsource?

Having your own “IT nerd” on staff can certainly be a boon to your practice. But you may find that outsourcing — which allows you to choose from a wide variety of service offerings and maintenance plans — works just as well or even better for your business.