ProMedical IT has supported Rainelle Medical Center (RMC), a Federally Qualified Health Center, for over four years. RMC is synonymous with West Virginian health care: They’ve provided Fayette, Greenbrier, Nicholas, and Summers Counties with a variety of multi-specialty disciplines — from community and behavioral health to pediatrics, radiology, pharmacy, and more — since 1974.
Prior to partnering with ProMedical IT in 2018, RMC was experiencing crippling IT issues, struggling to keep operations fluid, deal with compliance issues, and close security gaps. These challenges left RMC exposed to the danger of cascading failure; they needed more capable, robust support as part of their growth strategy.
Operating in an underserved area, RMC was in a unique position to grow and expand with no demand limitations. However, they lacked a solid technological foundation, designed with scalability in mind, to do so.
ProMedical IT consulted RMC leadership and identified actionable improvements. First, by introducing a ticketing system, end user requests were outsourced, improving the security, maintenance, monitoring, patching, and other capabilities of RMC’s internal IT department.
Since partnering with ProMedical IT in 2018, RMC has:
- Grown from seven locations to more than twenty
- Registered 99.999% daily uptime
- Increased both patient and staff satisfaction
- Increased efficiency, productivity, and security
ProMedical IT’s solution implementation consisted of five key components:
- Analysis and Roadmaps
- Compliance Into Care
- Technological Standards
- Supporting Strategic Growth
- White-Glove Service
Analysis and Roadmaps
ProMedical IT’s first step in any new partnership is a comprehensive gap analysis and environmental audit.
Finding: RMC’s audit and analysis found out-of-date PCs and operating systems, an end-of-life network and infrastructure, and unstable applications with major security vulnerabilities. It was apparent that a solution would require more than upgrades alone.
ProMedical IT and RMC executives jointly evaluated the findings and situation. They worked together to define a roadmap for stabilizing operations as fast as possible: first fixing the most essential needs and then implementing remaining upgrades and changes when possible. ProMedical IT amortized RMC’s capital expenditure, allowing for maximum impact without additional financial stress.
Service Note: Roadmap and timeline creation are a standard part of ProMedical IT’s approach to Managed IT Services.
Compliance Into Care
Compliance is one of the most important aspects of a healthcare organization, and like technology, it’s always changing —yet there are dire consequences for mismanaging it. Entire businesses and, more importantly, sensitive patient data are at stake.
Finding: RMC struggled to stay current with changing compliance policies.
ProMedical IT took over technical compliance, allowing RMC to focus their efforts on patient care and internal goals. We provided insights to identify exactly how and why compliance changes matter to patients, providers, and executives alike. Then, we followed through with instruction and implementation.
Service Note: Managing all IT compliance matters gives providers and executives the confidence and freedom to perform their daily operations without worry.
We are so lucky to provide community healthcare to this underserved segment of the American population, and we wouldn’t be where we are today without the support and service .. [of] our partner, ProMedical IT.
Chris Clay, CFO
Technological Standards
ProMedical IT’s focus then shifted to modernizing RMC’s technology suite to meet best practices for IT in healthcare. Their needs were so extensive that ProMedical IT and RMC chose to employ a phased approach.
Finding: RMC’s core infrastructure, edge systems, and end-user hardware were outdated — in its usable life, security, and reliability.
ProMedical IT replaced outdated technology in all locations, starting with the most critical components: security, networking, and connectivity-dependent items. After revamping RMC’s site-level infrastructure and stabilizing their network, focus shifted to an intensive security overhaul. ProMedical IT started by replacing firewalls and curating a custom set of security protocols to help reduce the attack surface. Once RMC achieved network and systems stability, ProMedical IT began transferring paper-based patient data to a comprehensive Electronic Medical Record (EMR)/Practice Management (PM) platform, including interfaces with labs, pharmacies, and Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM). VoIP technology replaced fax machines and legacy phone systems, supporting flexibility and better business intelligence.
Service Note: ProMedical IT operates as a Virtual CIO/CTO, providing leadership and insight for reliable IT operations and sustainable future growth beyond IT Service Management (ITSM) basics.
Supporting Strategic Growth
One of RMC’s key goals was to expand services to new locations, patients, and medical disciplines. Planning for this growth and expansion began at the outset; standardizing IT infrastructure across offices made this process, and subsequent buildouts of new office space, as simple and efficient as possible.
Finding: These actions boosted RMC employee engagement and productivity, increased patient satisfaction and retention rates, and allowed RMC to expand at an appropriate pace.
Another key decision: migrating from a server-based environment to a hybrid cloud model powered by Microsoft Azure. This infrastructure design allowed RMC to provide reliable inter-office connectivity, file sharing, storage, and computation, all with pay-as-you-go pricing designed to rapidly scale business operations without incurring unnecessary costs.
Service Note: ProMedical IT has a wealth of experience in guiding organizations through the expansion process. Whether partners are single offices looking to expand or health networks experienced in a range of specialties, ProMedical IT takes a unique approach to each project, creating custom-made plans for every growth model.
White-Glove Service
While 100% uptime may be unrealistic, PMIT takes pride in exceeding customer expectations, from single-office facilities to the most sophisticated hospital environments in the U.S., North America, and across the pond.
Finding: RMC has experienced an 84% decrease in downtime since joining the ProMedical IT family. Our service delivery team solved 90% of issues remotely, 70% in under an hour, and provided on-site help as needed.
ProMedical IT also stipulates explicit maximum response times to tickets of varying severities in each SLA, taking the guesswork out of IT support and ensuring that supported offices can focus on their core business.
Service Note: ProMedical IT’s resources span North America, Canada, and the U.K. and can provide immediate in-person support. ProMedical IT classifies support engineers, ensuring each service delivery ticket is assigned to a subject matter expert — whether an EMR is malfunctioning, a printer is offline, or Microsoft Windows simply requires an update.
RMC made the difficult but necessary decision to implement sweeping technological change across their organization; today, employees and patients alike reap the benefits.
Interested in learning more about how ProMedical IT can help you? Contact us today!