Relieving IT Headaches for Good
The background
A robust technology infrastructure is critical to the success of Australian primary healthcare providers. At GPsupport, we take immense pride in being able to power the healthcare sector with best-in-class technology solutions. Our goal is to make it easier for our clients to manage their daily operations, provide superior outcomes for patients, and to ultimately grow their business. Let’s take a look at the outcomes we have helped our valued client, General Practice Plus, to achieve this year:
The problem
General Practice Plus currently consists of five GP clinics and a head office location, all based in Tasmania. The General Practice Plus group offers an extensive range of medical services and serves a diverse range of patients. However, in recent years the business was experiencing a lower rate of retention and a compromised level of customer service, due to a less than satisfactory IT system.
In fact, General Practice Plus experienced regular system crashes that cost the business valuable time and revenue, as doctors were unable to see patients during these outages. Lengthy delays and issues with core business technology (such as phones, printers and clinical software) were a cause of frustration for patients, practitioners and administrators alike. A mismatched series of legacy IT systems and a lack of hands-on technical support threatened to destabilise the business’ longevity.
These problems became even more pronounced during March 2020, as the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic placed an additional strain on Australian healthcare providers. At this point, having a dysfunctional IT system was no longer a risk that General Practice Plus could afford to tolerate.
The solution
GPsupport was approached by General Practice Plus CEO, Kate O’Shannessey, in order to reconfigure the group’s technology infrastructure. The goal was to restore IT functionality, boost confidence amongst staff, and offer a more streamlined experience for patients. After our team’s initial diagnosis, it quickly became apparent that a complete IT rebuild would be required in order to future-proof the General Practice Plus business.
Within a week, our team had reconfigured the fundamental IT requirements for 70 staff across six business locations. In addition to immediately minimising critical pain points and achieving short-term outcomes for our client, we were also able to recommend and implement a series of long-term IT projects that could grow in scale with General Practice Plus.
Today, General Practice Plus describes their IT experience as “night and day.” Team members are no longer faced with feelings of dread in anticipation of business-critical IT failures. Instead, GPsupport has been able to relieve many technical headaches (and stress-related headaches,) so that General Practice Plus can focus on growing their core business.
Looking forward, General Practice Plus has just acquired a sixth clinical location and hopes to enjoy a long-term partnership with GPsupport. Find out what their CEO said below:
What the client said
“General Practice Plus has grown rapidly in recent years, and our legacy IT systems were no longer serving our needs. We were experiencing recurrent system crashes that resulted in costly downtime, and caused a great deal of pressure in the business. Without a reliable technology infrastructure, our team was unable to securely plan and manage critical business activities, and this situation came to a head during the outbreak of COVID-19. We realised that General Practice Plus had a greater need for hands-on IT support to reduce risks to our business, and to overcome these pain points. Fortunately, we were connected with GPsupport who came highly recommended.
Changing our entire IT infrastructure during a pandemic felt like an insane decision. However, the team from GPsupport made the transition to our new systems as smooth and painless as possible. Paul, Adam, Jamison and the team have been highly responsive, effective and solutions-driven since day one. They’re straight-talking, action-taking, and they get the job done. General Practice Plus now has a fully scalable, workable IT solution that can grow with our business.
With the help of GPsupport, technology has gone from being our number one obstacle, to an item that doesn’t even cross our minds. We used to start our workday dreading IT headaches, but now we’re able to focus on serving our patients and improving our business. Primary healthcare is such a niche field of expertise, and when it comes to IT, this cannot be facilitated successfully without expert knowledge. If you’re a GP clinic or an Australian healthcare provider, I frankly think you’d be crazy to choose anyone other than GPsupport for your technical needs. On a personal level, I would never recommend anyone else and I cannot speak highly enough of the entire GPsupport team. “
– Kate O’Shannessey – General Practice Plus CEO