Monday, March 19, 2012

THE AUDITORS ARE COMING!! (HIPAA / HITECH series continued)

HHS & the OCR may or may not be gunning for you.  
How prepared are you?
In warning that up to 150 organizations are going to be audited this year, the OCR just fired a big fat warning shot across your bow.

A short summary of the deal is found at their website, as follows:

"... OCR is piloting a program to perform up to 150 audits of covered entities to assess privacy and security compliance.   Audits conducted during the pilot phase will begin November 2011 and conclude by December 2012."

What does this mean for managers, owners, and other leaders at Covered Entities and Business Associates?

Simply enough: the audits are real, the audits are under way, and it would be in your best interest to at least take the whole concept seriously and start the simple, cheap steps to prepare your organization for compliance.

Quick reminder about why you care.....  the law requires from $100 to 1.5 million dollars fines to be levied this year.   Read this summary from the AMA for more details.



So, what do you do to prepare?    What simple steps will go a LONG WAY towards keeping your money in your pockets, and keeping your business in business?

Quite simply, as Turn Key Solutions & Turn Key Health (and a lot of other educated organizations) have been preaching for some time nowSTART WITH A PERIODIC, ANNUAL INTERNAL AUDIT.


A great summary from Chiroeco.com of what needs to happen next is as follows:


1. Get your documentation in place
2. Get your business associate agreements in place
3. Evaluate your compliance (periodic internal audits)
4. Implement a training program
5. Assemble your internal subject matter experts as relates to the HIPAA / HITECH laws
6. Prepare for a timely response 



If you need help with any of these steps, call us at 225-751-4444.    As the Gulf South regions' premier Healthcare Information Technology services team, we're helping clients every day run their practices and their clinics more efficiently, building HIPAA & HITECH compliance into every piece of their business.

And we'll be honored to help you, too.


Find out more about Turn Key Health here: http://www.tkshealth.com

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

WHY in the world would anyone do business with us?


In trying to grapple with what kind of customers we do best with, and what sort of employees do best @ Turn Key Solutions, I'm asking myself for the 984th time, "Why does Turn Key Solutions exist?   Why do I come to work every day?"

Here's what I've scribbled, scratched, and drawn out over the last few weeks:  

My partners and I, and our key employees, and, I think, all of our employees actually believe the following things (I believe so, because these are the things we constantly talk about, these are things we discuss in the lunchroom, these ideas are the heart of our conversations all the time.):

What Turn Key Solutions really thinks:
... that small businesses are terribly important (and borderline almost sacred), and that they shouldn't be taken advantage of.
... that every time our customers win, we win.   Not because they're going to give us money, or PO's, or references, but because we were a part of that victory.
... that business owners and employees need success for the american dream to happen
... that customers need to be protected because every time a business fails, families suffer and dreams fail.
... that in an industry as dynamic as Information Technology, businesses need reliable, proven solutions to safeguard their budgets.
... that rapidly evolving technologies often have an important place in the business environment
... that our depth and breadth of experience, our passion for our clients' success, and our appreciation for reliable technologies creates a culture whereby we can dramatically help clients that will PARTNER with us, TRUST us, and COMMUNICATE with us.



So maybe instead of talking about how big our office is, or how awesome we are, I need to start communicating with the world about what we believe.   

Because everybody thinks they're an I.T. company.   Heck, there's 2 other IT companies within a stone's throw of our front door.   Probably 5 within a 1 mile radius.   But what makes us different?   The above stuff - how we think, the filters through which we run every decision.

Are we the right I.T. partner for every company in the Gulf South USA?   Nope.   But I do believe there are plenty of people that think the same way we do.

And that's enough business for us.   

After all, when it really comes down to it, why do we come to work?   To provide for our families and to help someone so that at the end of the day, we hopfully can know that we made  difference to the people that trust us.

That's why.



Wednesday, March 7, 2012

What we do best

After being in business since 1999, it's dizzying to think of the sheer volume of products and solutions we've tested, tried, chucked out the window, and/or supported for 13 years now.

Thousands, I guess.  

And in the end, that's okay.  It's good - after all, Info Tech is a changing, dynamic industry by its nature.   

So take some dramamine, and stop spinning - that's what I always tell myself.   Then, let's focus on our primary goal here: protect our clients and help them grow.  

And how do we do that?   I AM SO GLAD YOU ASKED...   

I working on updating our website to the new Joomla 2.5 CMS, and updating our "products and services" page - check it out here.   Short version, though is that here is what we focus on:

Solutions Consulting - figuring out the best way to meet a new need, a new business problem every day.   

Security & Compliance - keeping our clients' data secure, and keeping them in front of ever-changing legal and industry regulations.

Cloud Services - "cloud" stuff is cool because it's the best way to meet a lot of business goals.  BUT NOT ALL OF THEM.   Our job is to help clients figure out when it's a fit, and then pick from the 9 million cloud vendors out there.

Complete I.T. Management - day in, day out, 24 x 7 x 365, we watch our clients' infrastructure, we protect them, we staff them with caring & competent IT professionals, and we just make stuff work.

Hardware & Software - after reviewing so many products, we know what works good.   That's why we sell stuff - because we are trying to make it easy for our clients to get the right parts.   Certainly not because there's tons of profit in hardware anymore. :(

Disaster prep & recovery - few things stink worse than losing data.   Except poopy diapers, maybe.  (I have 5 kids and 2 decades of IT experience, still not sure which stinks worse, honestly.)

Healthcare I.T. Specialization - somehow we've gotten a ridiculous amount of experience helping healthcare clients with every aspect of their business, and we love it.  It's one of the specialized industries we really enjoy and focus on.

So that's it.   That's what we do best.   Somehow, website design is no longer on that list.   So if our site isn't perfect, we'll get around to that.   But in the meantime, I've got customers' problems to fix first.