Client Success Stories

Eliminating HIPAA Compliance Risk and Productivity Loss with Managed Services

For over 35 years AmCare Ambulance has been serving Central and Upstate New York, and is a recognized Emergency Medical Services (EMS) leader in the region. AmCare’s fleet of seven ambulances respond to over 9,000 calls per year.

AmCare is recognized for bringing the first Advanced Life Support service and Advanced Airway Care program to the City of Rome, NY. AmCare holds the benchmark for EMS skills in the field, and regularly provides training to students in Madison, Herkimer and Oneida Counties.

Challenge

AmCare Ambulance is growing and as a result has become more reliant on technology for its daily operations. Time consuming computer issues and frequent network outages bombarded employee resources making them unavailable to focus on their primary jobs. They were facing an ever-increasing business need for transparency into their network for troubleshooting, problem resolution and mitigation. The lack of ongoing, predictable and proactive IT support was causing IT issues to pile up. The situation reached a breaking point when AmCare’s network went down for hours causing them to miss emergency requests and impeding their ability to respond to patient calls. Administration knew it was time for an in-depth assessment of their IT network. Even during normal uptime, the network was slow. PC software updates were another concern.

Solution

M.A. Polce Consulting conducted an assessment of AmCare’s infrastructure and topology, including incidents, faults, downtime and security vulnerabilities. Results of the audit showed susceptibilities in the existing infrastructure, and areas where their network and PCs needed to be optimized, patched and updated. Bottlenecks were predicted, and the network was proactively adapted to ensures productivity of applications and business continuity.

M.A. Polce Consulting provided AmCare with a managed services program customized to their environment that includes advanced reporting, continuous hourly monitoring and proactive IT support. Choosing a solution that ensures IT compliance with HIPAA industry standards and protects against HIPAA compliance risks was a deciding factor in choosing to work with M. A. Polce Consulting.

“M.A. Polce Consulting has been an important part in advancing our technological needs. In this fast-paced environment it is comforting to have their knowledge and expertise keep our business current and up-to-date.”

Chris Grenier, AEMTP at AmCare Ambulance Services

Business Outcome

AmCare has eliminated employee productivity loss with a managed IT solution that keeps track of their software and equipment, maintains up-to-date network patches and provides HIPAA grade security updates.

“Problems are solved at the first sign of trouble and 99% of the time before AmCare is aware of the potential issue.”

Chris Roy, Managed Services Director at M.A. Polce Consulting

AmCare is able to focus on providing industry-leading emergency care to their patients without having to worry about IT and is no longer experiencing network outages. AmCare benefits by having strong security and data protection processes, and its systems are kept up to date by installing and verifying patches automatically based on policies and procedures customized for AmCare’s requirements. AmCare now has access to IT resources with critical competencies required to manage every piece of the network and endpoints on a day-to-day basis. As the service provider, we keep track of the software and equipment AmCare uses and keeps them informed when you should consider switching to newer versions.

“Our network issues affected all of us—patients and staff. We feel a lot more secure knowing our network won’t be causing downtime and that our IT infrastructure is kept up-to-date and secure.”

Paul Taylor, President/ CEO at AmCare Ambulance Services

Managed Services is saving AmCare money by improving efficiency on computers, network and software. AmCare is benefitting from peace of mind and provides a professional, comprehensive, fixed-price support and monthly health checks. Roy says,

“although we don’t work out of the AmCare office, we are viewed as an extension of their team. We are accountable to AmCare and see our value in knowing how to prevent and solve any problems at the first sign of trouble and making recommendations that save money in the long-run. This means AmCare’s daily operations no longer suffer.”