Here are the five key healthcare IT questions you should ask when entering into a joint-venture with a hospital.
1. Who will own the hardware, software and systems?
“We just saw a case where the hospital provided workstations for the ASC to do software training, and one day, the hospital came and took them. Not out of spite, they just needed them back at the hospital,” he says. “The software trainer was on-site that day, and their computers disappeared. The ASC knew they didn’t own the workstations, they just had no control. The lack of ownership is one thing, but the lack of control was something else. But the main thing is to understand the ownership arrangement so that such problems don’t arise.”
2. If an ASC uses the hospitals software system, who has control over the master patient record?
Again, it’s not so important what the arrangement is, so much as it’s one everyone has agreed to and can live with.
“The real reason you need to work these things out is to manage expectations,” says Dr. Jenkins. “It’s key to know what to expect with regard to ownership, not so much in a financial/balance sheet sense as in an operational sense.”
3. Who will provide Internet access?
This may seem basic, but all other issues, including how you’ll connect to the hospital’s network, are moot until the provider is determined.
“If the hospital has high-speed fiber-optic access and says, ‘You can connect to our system,’ it doesn’t necessarily mean you will be on the hospital’s fiber-optic system for internet access,” says Dr. Jenkins. “There are HIPAA security issues that may prevent that. Each case is different; you need to find out what’s really been promised.”
4. Who will handle the HIPAA security requirements?
The hospital’s IT staff will likely be off-site is it going to be responsible for setting up and maintaining the nuances of your facility’s compliance with these regulations?
“Oftentimes, when the hospital and ASC developers are talking, the hospital side says they will take care of something,” says Dr. Jenkins. “But they never get around to telling the hospital IT department that it now needs to support a separate physician practice, imaging center or ASC. You wouldn’t use the hospital’s lawyers to represent you in the joint-venture negotiations, so why would you use their IT? You need to have control over your own destiny when it comes to IT systems.”
5. Who will provide hardware, software and systems support?
“There’s a general lack of understanding about who’s going to do what,” he says. “What is the software vendor going to provide? The hospital? The imaging equipment vendor? How will it all connect? In the end, if every party only does its piece, you can end up with disconnected equipment and IT systems that simply don’t talk to each other.
“You really should have someone coordinating all that; that’s the role of the IT general contractor.”
QSE Technologies is a premiere IT systems integrator that serves the ASCs by managing all aspects of IT infrastructure design, configuration, installation and ongoing tech support. Learn more about QSE.
