3 Must-Have Remote Working Tools for Your Practice

For the longest time, working remotely was a trend, a perk, or a lifestyle. But a lot has changed in the past months. Working from home may be the direction that many US businesses are heading toward in response to the health, safety, financial, and business operation challenges brought about by the coronavirus outbreak.

Even many healthcare facilities are considering the shift toward remote operations.

Although remote work for medical practices doesn’t exactly offer the same kind of flexibility that digital nomads enjoy, it still gets your practice running while ensuring that your staff works in the safety and comfort of their own homes.

The good news is that technology is constantly evolving, and along with it comes the many tools your practice can use to carry out virtual operations more effectively and more efficiently. Here are a few technological innovations that can help give your practice smooth remote work operations:

• 1. Telemedicine

Simply put, telemedicine is the remote delivery of healthcare services such as consultations and exams via electronic communication and telecommunication technology.

With telemedicine, you can provide quality care even if you’re not in the same room as your patients. Thanks to technological advancements, you can use simple but secure and HIPAA-compliant video conferencing to experience a seamless virtual clinic visit.

The telemedicine feature can also be directly integrated into your EHR software. Tried-and-tested EHR software companies do this for an even more streamlined clinic workflow. 

• 2. Productivity and Collaboration Tools

Patients aren’t the only people you need to be communicating with if you’re looking to run a successful remote practice. Internal communication is just as important in making sure that your team is on the same page, working for the same goal, and moving in the same direction. 

In the remote work setting, face-to-face communication may not be an option but tools like G Suite for Business can give you the next best thing. As an example, here are some of its features:

• Gmail for sending and receiving emails and attachments
• Hangouts Chat for real-time chatting
• Hangouts Meet for meetings, video conferencing, and voice calls
• Drive for file-sharing

G Suite for Business can also be backed by a Business Associate Agreement (BAA), which makes it HIPAA-compliant and secure for your practice. Its pricing is at a per-user-per-month arrangement, but if you’re looking to get the best price, you can contact an authorized G Suite reseller as they normally offer user accounts at a much lower rate.

• 3. Cloud-Hosted Servers

The challenge with using on-premise servers for your practice is that when your team is working remotely, you won’t have anyone to keep an eye on your infrastructure or address connectivity issues.

With cloud-hosted servers, your IT staff can monitor and manage your IT network remotely. And if you don’t have an IT staff, a reliable cloud services provider can easily assign a certified cloud engineer to your practice. Their services can also include migrating your entire EHR software, your phone system, as well as your office files to the cloud.

The Future of Your Healthcare Practice

Remote work may be a big challenge for healthcare practices, but it’s not impossible. With advanced technology, secure collaboration tools, and innovative computing environments, your practice can be equipped to deliver excellent patient care and support even from a distance.

MG Hosting Services is a company dedicated to protecting the healthcare industry from the growing threats of cyber attacks and data theft. A practice’s first line of defense against cybercriminals, they are highly trained IT specialists and cloud engineers ready to serve the technical needs of healthcare professionals 24/7. With offsite data storage, military-grade data encryption, and full remote work support, they can prepare practices for anything that comes next. Learn more on their website, and find more posts like this one on their company blog.