Why IT Response Time Matters More for Medical Practices

When your EHR goes down at a retail store, customers wait a bit longer. When your EHR goes down at a medical practice, patients can’t be safely treated.

IT response time matters for every business. But for healthcare, the stakes are different. Delayed response doesn’t just mean frustrated employees—it means cancelled appointments, delayed diagnoses, medication errors, and compromised patient care.

If your current IT support takes hours (or days) to respond, you’re not just dealing with an inconvenience. You’re carrying risk that a retail business would never accept.

When Systems Go Down, Patients Suffer

Let’s be concrete about what IT downtime means in healthcare:

EHR Outage

Without access to electronic health records:

Providers can’t see patient histories
Allergies and medication lists are unavailable
Previous test results can’t be reviewed
Clinical decision support is offline
E-prescribing stops working

Patient impact: Care decisions made with incomplete information. Potential for medication errors. Delayed treatments.

Practice Management Outage

Without your PM system:

Appointments can’t be scheduled
Insurance eligibility can’t be verified
Claims can’t be submitted
Payments can’t be processed
Check-in/check-out breaks down

Patient impact: Long waits, scheduling confusion, billing problems.

Phone System Outage

Without working phones:

Patients can’t reach you
Referral calls are missed
Emergency contacts fail
Appointment reminders stop

Patient impact: Can’t schedule, can’t get questions answered, may go elsewhere.

Network Outage

Without network connectivity:

All networked systems stop
Internet-dependent applications fail
Cloud services become inaccessible
Credit card processing stops

Patient impact: Everything breaks at once.

The Compounding Effect

IT problems rarely stay contained. A “small” issue snowballs:

Email stops working → staff can’t communicate
Delays ripple → appointments run behind
Frustration builds → staff morale drops
Workarounds emerge → security compromises
Backlog grows → cleanup takes days

Every hour of delay multiplies the impact.

Calculating the Cost of Downtime

Downtime has real financial costs:

Direct Revenue Loss

If you can’t see patients, you can’t bill:

Example calculation:

Average revenue per patient visit: $150
Patients per hour: 4
Hourly revenue: $600
Half-day outage (4 hours): $2,400 lost

That’s just one provider. Multiply by your practice size.

Staff Productivity Loss

Employees still get paid during outages:

Example calculation:

10 employees
Average hourly cost (with benefits): $25
4-hour outage: $1,000 in unproductive wages

Recovery Costs

Getting back to normal costs money:

Overtime to catch up on backlogs
Rescheduling costs
Data recovery if needed
Emergency IT support premiums

Patient Loss

Patients who can’t reach you go elsewhere:

Lifetime value of a lost patient: $2,000-$10,000+
Negative reviews from frustrated patients
Referral damage

Compliance Exposure

Extended outages may trigger:

HIPAA documentation requirements
Breach notification if data affected
Potential fines and penalties

Total Cost Example

For a 5-provider practice with an 8-hour outage:

Cost Category	Estimate
Lost revenue	$24,000
Staff wages (unproductive)	$2,000
Recovery overtime	$1,500
Rescheduling/admin	$500
Emergency IT premium	$1,000
Total	$29,000

And this doesn’t include patient care impacts or potential compliance issues.

Learn more about managed IT support

What Response Time Should You Expect?

Not all issues are equal. Response should match urgency.

Critical Issues (System Down)

EHR unavailable, network down, phones dead—anything preventing patient care.

Expected response: Immediate to 15 minutes

This means someone is working on your problem within 15 minutes of you reporting it. Not an acknowledgment email—actual troubleshooting.

Acceptable: Technician on-site or remote within 1 hour for issues requiring physical presence.

High Priority Issues

Significant impact but workarounds exist. Single workstation down, printing issues, slow performance affecting productivity.

Expected response: 30 minutes to 1 hour

Acceptable: Resolution within 4 hours.

Medium Priority Issues

Inconvenient but not blocking work. Software questions, feature requests, minor issues with workarounds.

Expected response: 2-4 hours

Acceptable: Resolution within 1-2 business days.

Low Priority Issues

Requests, improvements, non-urgent changes.

Expected response: Same business day acknowledgment

Acceptable: Scheduled resolution based on priority.

The Industry Reality

Many IT providers promise response times they don’t deliver:

“We’ll get back to you within 4 hours” (for critical issues?)
“Next business day response” (your EHR is down NOW)
“We’ll schedule a technician” (you need help today)

Healthcare needs better. Practices should demand SLAs (Service Level Agreements) that match the criticality of their operations.

Remote vs. On-Site Response

Modern IT support is largely remote—and that’s usually good for response time.

Remote Support Advantages

Speed: Technician can connect in minutes, not hours Availability: 24/7 coverage more feasible Cost: No travel time means more efficient support Expertise: Specialist access without waiting for travel

What can be fixed remotely:

Most software issues
Network configuration
User access problems
Email and application issues
Many server issues

When On-Site Is Required

Hardware failures: Physical equipment needs physical hands Network infrastructure: Switches, routers, cabling Workstation deployment: Setting up new machines Complex troubleshooting: Some issues need physical presence

Expected On-Site Response

When on-site is genuinely needed:

Critical issues: Same day, preferably within 4 hours Urgent issues: Next business day Scheduled work: As agreed

Geography matters: Providers should have technicians within reasonable distance of your practice. “We’ll dispatch someone from 200 miles away” isn’t acceptable for healthcare.

Escalation Procedures That Work

When first-level support can’t resolve an issue, escalation should be smooth.

Good Escalation Looks Like

Clear triggers: Defined conditions for escalation (time limits, complexity thresholds)
Immediate handoff: No waiting in queue again
Context transfer: Next-level technician knows what’s been tried
Authority increase: Escalation brings more expertise or decision-making power
Communication: You’re informed of escalation status

Bad Escalation Looks Like

“I’ll check with my manager and get back to you”
Starting over with each new person
Multiple hours between escalation levels
No one seeming to own the problem
Having to call and demand escalation

Questions to Ask About Escalation

What’s your escalation process for critical issues?
How many levels before reaching senior engineers?
What’s the typical time at each level?
Can I request escalation directly?
Who owns the problem through resolution?

Questions to Ask Your IT Provider

Whether evaluating a new provider or assessing your current one:

Response Time Questions

What are your SLA response times by priority?
How do you define priority levels?
What’s your actual average response time (not just promised)?
How do you measure response time—first contact or actual work beginning?
What happens if you miss SLA targets?

Availability Questions

What are your support hours?
What coverage exists outside business hours?
Is there a difference in response time after hours?
What’s the cost for after-hours support?
How do I reach someone in an emergency?

Capability Questions

How much can you resolve remotely?
How quickly can you have someone on-site if needed?
Where are your technicians located?
What expertise do you have with healthcare systems?
Are you familiar with our EHR/PM system?

Track Record Questions

Can you provide references from medical practices?
What’s your client retention rate?
How long have you supported healthcare organizations?
Can you share actual response time metrics?

Red Flags in IT Support Quality

Warning signs your current support isn’t adequate:

Response Issues

Voicemails not returned for hours
Email tickets sitting unacknowledged
“We’ll get to it when we can” attitude
No way to reach someone urgently
Constantly dealing with different technicians who don’t know your systems

Communication Issues

No updates on ticket status
Having to call repeatedly for information
Defensive responses to complaints
Unclear escalation process
No documentation of what was done

Capability Issues

Technicians unfamiliar with healthcare systems
Inability to resolve issues remotely
Long delays for on-site visits
Same issues recurring without permanent fixes
Recommendations that don’t fit healthcare needs

Attitude Issues

Blaming users for problems
Minimizing the impact of issues
“That’s not our responsibility” responses
Resistance to urgent requests
Treating healthcare like any other industry

Building the Right Relationship

IT support for healthcare should be a partnership, not a vendor transaction.

What Good Looks Like

Proactive communication: They tell you about problems before you notice them Understanding your operations: They know how your practice works Healthcare expertise: HIPAA awareness, EHR familiarity, understanding of clinical workflows Continuous improvement: Regular reviews, trend analysis, recommendations Accessibility: You can reach someone when needed, every time

Setting Expectations

Formalize SLAs: Get response time commitments in writing Define priorities: Agree on what constitutes critical, high, medium, low Establish escalation: Know exactly how to escalate urgent issues Review regularly: Monthly or quarterly reviews of performance metrics Communicate changes: When your needs change, update your provider

Holding Providers Accountable

Track response times yourself (don’t just trust their reports)
Document missed SLAs
Address patterns promptly
Be willing to change providers if performance doesn’t improve

Is Your IT Support Meeting Healthcare Standards?

At MedTech Consulting, we provide IT support with response times designed for healthcare’s demands—because we understand that downtime isn’t just inconvenient, it impacts patient care.