I.T. Solved Blog

CapEx (Capital Expenditures) vs. OpEx (Operating Expenditures)

With the rise of cloud solutions several years ago, many Senior Living organizations have begun shifting IT expenses to an OpEx (Operating Costs) model. So many of these long term care facilities are well capitalized when they are built and pay up front for the hardware they need to get their facility operational. After being in business a few years, they face ongoing challenges with margins, billings and reimbursements that make it much more difficult to accommodate capital expenditures on an ongoing basis. 

Finding ways to fit ongoing IT expenses into their operating expenditures is far more practical and accessible than relying on influxes or accumulated capital to make needed improvements to technical infrastructure.

Location: Henry B Gonzalez Convention Center, San Antonio, Texas

Date: April 15-17, 2019

Booth: 636

Vcpi is heading to the Argentum 2019 Senior Living Executive Conference in San Antonio, Texas from April 15th through the 17th.  The Argentum conference is a leading event for Senior Living and Long Term Care providers and a fantastic showcase for future thought leadership and direction within the LTPAC industry.

One of the biggest disruptions to IT staff productivity is having to rapidly shift from proactive work on strategic projects to cover reactive requests from end users.

While there are many techniques that IT teams will try to help mitigate these challenges, in the end, your production systems have to stay up and your users have to be able to access them when and where they need them.  At the same time, businesses have come to rely on IT teams to deliver strategic solutions that help essential business functions, and delays on these projects can be very costly for the organization. Missed due dates are not an option.

Patient care is an integral part of the LTPAC workflow. Finding a way to distribute care across patient channels is difficult enough. But, what about employee care? All of those caregivers who are baked into the LTPAC architecture need access to quick, accurate IT support that allows them to continue to produce results, without unnecessary frustrations.

To provide this support, many long-term rehabilitation providers choose to implement a service desk or help desk to tackle those mission-critical IT problems. But, what's the difference?

What separates a service desk from a help desk?

Providing high-quality care to senior citizens requires around-the-clock vigilance on the part of long-term and post-acute care (LTPAC) providers. Information technology (IT) plays a critical role in the delivery of reliable care to seniors at LTPAC facilities. Unfortunately, patient care can suffer when LTPAC employees do not have access to a 24/7 IT help desk that truly understands the long term care and senior living environment. Below is a look at some of the signs that indicate that your facility needs to move to a 24/7 IT service desk and the key ways that immediate access to IT support can help your LTPAC facility gain a competitive edge in the marketplace.

Intuitively, many people think of long-term post-acute care (LTPAC) as a somewhat traditional and tech adverse industry. With the focus so squarely on giving care in perpetuity to patients that need consistent hands-on attention, the core mission of LTPAC is understandably seen as a very traditional hands-on concept. But in reality, the complex needs of patients receiving LTPAC services are actually the perfect environment for many of our most recent innovations from hardware devices to software to services.

Improving Patient Care with Office 365

If provided a way to save money and enhance patient care, you'd probably implement it right? One such way is to follow the example set by the National Health Services of Scotland and of Advocate Health Care, one of the largest hospital systems in Illinois. Both organizations switched from Microsoft Office to Microsoft Office 365 and boosted caregiver efficiency while also improving care consistency.

HIPAA Compliance and Data Security

Security

A study conducted by the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) on LTPAC providers engaged in Health Information Exchange (HIE) found that LTPAC facilities continue to have issues with outdated technology solutions, and that some key personnel in these facilities remain unaware of the importance of the security and interoperability of PHI. 

The need for senior living operators to protect their vulnerable IT systems and data is underscored by the weekly stories of US companies being hacked, phished and scammed out of billions of dollars. HIPAA and HITECH compliance is the regulatory response to this and puts the IT security responsibility on the operator.

Listen as Chris Lisser from vcpi, Ryan Witt from Proofpoint Solutions, and Rod Brewer from Exceptional Living Centers provide expert advice on IT security for LTPAC.