Access to health care is a basic human right and technology is critical to this. Smikteck works with health providers and carers to roll out technology solutions to support them in maintaining services under all circumstances.

Technology plays a vital role in community health, especially in regional and remote communities. Smikteck understands the specialist requirements of health services and their need, at times, to provide outreach services.

The pandemic changed the way health care was provided and IT was fundamental to this change. The deployment of remote technology solutions supported health providers to deliver efficient and effective outreach services in regional and remote communities.

Technology has also enhanced health providers and care workers connection to community during lock down times when physical connections were not as easy to facilitate.

Case Study Overview

SMIKTECK has worked with Awabakal providing strategic technology solutions since 2019.

During the height of the pandemic, Awabakal wasn’t able to provide their normal face to face services and recognised how important technology was in maintaining services and connection to their community. They worked closely with SMIKTECK to provide consistent, secure services across all Awabakal centres including health care, childcare, outreach and management.

Objective

To minimise the risk of cyber threats while improving user experience and minimising technology infrastructure down time.

Key Challenges

Prior to working with Smikteck, Awabakal faced daily challenges with their technology. The infrastructure in place did not meet the business operational needs or growth plans and it was unreliable, with down-time resulting in clinic closures with little or no notice. Additional challenges included

• providing a large range of services with many different users
• different technology and data access requirements for different users
• increased service requirements with new medical sites opening and medical practices moving to new sites
• creating site specific solutions and
• integrating with existing technology.

Previously, Awabakal had experienced some major outages stemming from both cyber-attack and equipment failure. This resulted in the

• closure of medical centres
• rescheduling of clinics and
• reputational damage.

Staff were often impacted by the failure of technology which in turn greatly impacted providing services to patients and the overall productivity of the organisation. Awabakal found that their ability to provide the best service possible was hindered by long wait times for technology support fixes and technical repairs. Awabakal management wanted a better solution and contacted Smikteck for help.

Outcomes

Smikteck completed a full assessment to identify risks, vulnerabilities, and improvement opportunities before developing a remediation plan to suit the needs of the organisation and its broad range of services.

Smikteck focused on

• ensuring all sites were operational with no impact on service provision improving user experience
• minimising of down time
• minimising outages thereby reducing the need for support
• implementing a service level agreement with clear timeframes for fixes and
• support improving network security and data storage

Strong working relationships with the Awabakal team enabled the implementation of site-specific solutions and improvements to the team’s technology experience, while providing peace of mind for management knowing their data is safe, secure and accessible only to those who need it.

Some technical info about our work with Awabakal

Technical projects to improve Awabakal’s technology environment include:

• • strategic road mapping for their tech environment
  • digital transformation by migrating on-premise servers to Azure cloud solutions
  • facilitating software move from Communicare to Best Practice by planning and liaising with other providers to streamline the move with a minimum downtime for users
  • integrating all business software applications, all accessible remotely and on a variety of platforms
  • full set up for a new work site including
    • internet connection
    • network configuration
    • setting up new equipment
      • integrating the new site to Awabakal operation
      • liaising with third party provider
  • supporting the set-up of vaccine clinics in the community and outside of normal office environments requiring:
    • provision of hardware and network hardware to facilitate operation of clinics
    • suitable access for Awabakal team
    • a team member on site for the beginning of each vaccine clinic to troubleshoot technical and connection issues in real time
  • coordinating and delivery of Telstra and other ISP review and move to faster networks across all sites
  • ongoing proactive and reactive support

If you would like to find out how SMIKTECK could help your Specialist practice improve their technology environment please give us a call on 1300 11 7645 or complete the form below and we’ll be in touch within 24 hours.