ClubDrive Healthcare Services Case Study

 

CLIENT:  Busy medical practice with seven offices scattered throughout metro Atlanta area for advanced research and treatment of eye diseases managing almost 300 patient visits each workday.

 

NUMBER OF USERS:  More than 80 including doctors and support staff.

 

SPECIALIZED SOFTWARE:  HCIT Practice Management

 

CHALLENGE:  Practice Administrator Paul Lucas was confronted with 10-year-old servers that had become increasingly unreliable.  “We were continually having network problems,” he said. “All the connections were in one office, so when that one was down, everybody was down.” Replacing the servers could have cost more than $65,000 including installation, maintenance, trouble-shooting and software licenses. With their network infrastructure failing, the expense appeared unavoidable.

 

SOLUTION:  ClubDrive Systems offered an enterprise-class, virtualized IT network that required no capital investment and supplied greatly enhanced performance, data security, compliance, and expert support for a single  per-user fee.  When one of Georgia Retina's servers failed during the transition, ClubDrive Systems supplied immediate disaster recovery that minimized business disruption. Meantime, Georgia Retina's data and applications were safely transferred to the safety of ClubDrive's Enterprise Application Delivery Center.  Now, problems in one office don't effect the other offices.  Doctors have access to patient records anytime, anywhere and from virtually any device for easy consultation between offices and instant energy response. "Our doctors quickly saw the advantage ClubDrive offers, particularly the peace of mind," he said.  Without technology distractions, Paul Lucas can devote his time to more productive aspects of practice management, and medical staff can tend to their patient responsibilities with greater confidence.  Significant energy savings from not powering servers provides "gravy" to the cost savings, he added.

 

COMPLIANCE:  ClubDrive's experience in the special requirements for maintaining records under federal privacy laws provided Georgia Retina with extra assurance.  With federal mandates for maintenance of electronic patient records about to take effect, ClubDrive's "cloud computing" techniques offer the fastest, easiest and least expensive route to compliance for Georgia Retina and other healthcare providers.  "As healthcare continues to change with electronic medical records soon to be required and reimbursements continuing to fall, I think the current business climate only further defines the niche ClubDrive can fill for healthcare companies," Paul Lucas said.

 

 

ClubDrive Healthcare Services Case Study

 

CLIENT: The largest and fastest growing private retina practice in North Carolina with specialty training in diseases of the Retina, Macula, and Vitreous.  They treat over 150,000 patients annually, they boast a 99% error-free claims submission record, and have recently been chosen for Regeneron/Bayer VEGF Trap clinical trial. Their practice includes 3 Doctors, over 19 Support Staff, and 5 Locations

 

SPECIALIZED SOFTWARE: HCIT Retina Plus/HCIT Practice Mgmt/Ziess VISUPAC Retinal Imagining

 

CHALLENGE: Practice Administrator Leo Swift faced two major issues: 1) an aging infrastructure that was increasingly unstable and delivered poor performance; 2) the inability to view retinal scan images from multiple office locations. “We were most concerned about catastrophic data loss, and our systems had become extremely complex, slow, and very difficult to maintain,” according to Swift.  A capital cost of over $50,000 would have been required just to get back up to par on performance with a system that still would not have enabled them to view retinal images across their 5 offices, nor did it address the issue of data protection.  That data was trapped in silos that could only be accessed from the office in which it was stored.  To add to their concerns, they were plagued by the fact that “all network connections came through the main office, so if it went down, then all offices were down.” Swift said “we needed someone with deep expertise who could help us centralize and simplify our IT.”

 

SOLUTION: Rather than investing over $50,000 in an incomplete solution, North Carolina  Retina moved all of their and applications and data to “the Cloud” with ClubDrive’s   Virtual Enterprise IT Service. By choosing ClubDrive, the client is now able to leverage secure, enterprise-class IT platform that provides their Doctors and Staff with vastly better performance, data security, data backup, compliance and expert support, and for one simple per user monthly fee.  Now, problems in one office do not affect the other offices. “Even Zeiss couldn’t figure out how to make their imaging system work across locations, but ClubDrive was able to make it happen, and now everything works together seamlessly and can be accessed from anywhere, anytime. I would recommend them to anyone” says Cindi Swift the IT and office manager.

COMPLIANCE: North Carolina Retina now has the peace of mind of knowing their IT is always in compliance with the latest Government Regulations and best practices.  With ClubDrive’s experience in the special requirements for maintaining records under federal privacy laws, and with federal mandates for maintenance of electronic patient records about to take effect, ClubDrive’s “cloud computing” techniques offered the fastest, easiest and least expensive route to compliance for North Carolina Retina. In the end, for North Carolina Retina going with ClubDrive was about being able to refocus more of their resources on providing their patients with the best care possible.

 

Most importantly, Leo Swift indicated that “we have been able to get out of managing IT and get back to practicing medicine.” 

 

 

 

ClubDrive Legal Services Case Study

 

 

CLIENT: Hajjar Sutherland Peters & Washmon LLP , a full-service business law firm in Austin, TX, specializing in corporate, real estate, litigation and probate/estate law.

 

NUMBER OF USERS: 6 Attorneys and 4  support staff.

SPECIALIZED IT NEEDS: Accounting management, practice management and case management applications. In addition, Partner Kareem Hajjar points out “law firms handle more data than almost every other business, as we are responsible for keeping, maintaining, reviewing and storing terabytes of information for extended periods of time, all of which needs to be accessed at a moment’s notice.”

 

CHALLENGE: The firm’s outdated hardware and software needed $13,000 worth of repair and upgrades. Data storage was often outsourced and back-ups frequently lagged for lack of capacity. “ClubDrive wasn’t expecting the amount of integration necessary to take all of it through their system,” Hajjar said.  “They spent days and nights in our office until they had every “i” dotted and “t” crossed.  It was amazing work ethic to witness.”

 

SOLUTION: ClubDrive’s cloud services saved the firm the $13,000 upgrade costs and $200 monthly in ongoing IT expenses, while providing access to the most up-to-date versions of their software applications. Over a three-year period, the firm will save more than $21,000 on IT expenses by switching to ClubDrive. The improved technology and remote accessibility saves administrative time and produces more billable hours for the firm, Hajjar said. “To be able to answer e-mails at 36,000 feet in the air means our clients can be served in real time from anywhere in the world at any time.  It is a game changer for a firm like ours.”    

 

RESULT: “The concept of cloud computing makes traditional computing obsolete.  In essence, it makes personal computers and servers unnecessary.  Your computer is wherever you are, running at high speeds, with no lag times, and with identical functionality,” Hajjar said. “On top of that ClubDrive, as opposed to other cloud computing services, gives us so much personal attention; they are responsive instantly via phone and internet and are present in our office within hours of a phone call.  It’s really amazing service.”

 

   The best part, Hajjar added, is the competitive boost cloud computing gives a small firm like his. “Historically, small firms were unable to compete with larger firms for Fortune 500 clients because they lacked the needed licenses for their server, the bandwidth for large data loads, or enough office space to accommodate new groups of contract employees.  ClubDrive unlocked those shackles.  For almost an insignificant amount of money, another user (or 10) can be added to the system.  They can work entirely remotely on cases with strict access only to certain areas of the server.  Experts in certain areas of law can now be retained on a case-by-case basis.   In essence, a small firm like ours can staff up for a Fortune 500 case with little expense, and staff down at the conclusion with extremely little financial outlay.”