The dental industry is always evolving, from dental materials to dental equipment. Along with these changes come new opportunities for dental professionals to take advantage of the latest technology and get ahead of their competition. In this day and age, if your dental office isn’t online or utilizing information technology, you could be missing out on potential clients and increased revenue. Here are seven reasons why managed information technology (IT) services can help your dental practice thrive:

Patient data in a dental office goes beyond charts and x-rays; it’s about managing patient information in one place so it can be accessed quickly when needed. With managed IT services, all that data is stored securely off site by the managed service provider, which means dental professionals aren’t limited by their office space or hardware. It also allows dental practices to access that information from anywhere, whether it’s a laptop, tablet, smartphone or a third party dental management software platform.

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) is a set-in-stone rule when storing and transmitting any patient data in the United States. If you violate these policies for electronic protected health information, your dental practice could be fined up to $50,000 per violation along with other consequences such as loss of revenue and damage to professional reputation. Managed IT services can help dental practices avoid penalties because they maintain strict HIPAA compliance using secure cloud servers.

If dental professionals need to get a patient treatment plan approved by another specialist, it makes sense for all parties involved to have access to the same set of patient data. Shared dental management software makes that possible by providing dental offices with a way to communicate and share dental records securely across multiple platforms, including third party dental management software platforms.

Upgrading dental office equipment can be a timely and costly process if your dental practice is doing it alone. Managed information technology services can update existing equipment or add new hardware at an affordable rate, while letting you focus on more important matters like taking care of patients. In addition, managed IT services provide around-the-clock monitoring so dental practices can quickly resolve any technical issues before they affect dental office operations.

In today’s digital world, cyber threats have become a daily concern for businesses of all sizes. According to an IDG Enterprise survey, nearly 48% of U.S.-based dental and orthodontic offices experienced some type of security incident in the past two years (e.g., virus attack, social engineered malware, etc.). Managed information technology services proactively monitor back-end dental equipment and dental software systems 24/7 to ensure your dental practice has secure infrastructure protection against these types of threats.

Information becomes obsolete as soon as dental professionals receive it. That’s why dental professionals need dental management software that’s easy to access and provides dental professionals with thorough information whenever they need it. A dental practice can upload its patient data on a secure cloud server so dental professionals have the ability to view all patient data from a remote location. Managed IT services can also provide dental practices with real-time visibility of important metrics such as appointment wait times, production rates and staff productivity.

Growing your online presence is no longer optional for dental practices; it’s necessary in order to compete in today’s market. Managing social media accounts, blogging, being active on search engines and more are all time consuming tasks that take away from actual dental practice operations. Managed IT services can oversee dental practice websites to ensure dental professionals are on the right path to online dental office success.

Overall, dental professionals need managed information technology services because dental practices have enough on their plates without worrying about transitioning dental office equipment, maintaining HIPAA compliance and keeping up-to-date with the latest dental software system features. Managed IT services ensure dental practices can focus on patient care.