Mathe Is More Than A Vendor For This Fertility Center — We’re A Trusted Business Partner
Drew and his team of IT technicians are responsible for the Huntington Reproductive Centers IT network, which supports hundreds of end-users. Any downtime or critical issues immediately affect the staff, and the patients they’re trying to serve.
This is a lot of pressure for a small internal IT team — when they need backup, they know they can rely on Mathe.
This Fertility Clinic’s Internal IT Team Couldn’t Support 300 Users Without Mathe’s Help
Huntington Reproductive Centers operates a network of nine fertility clinics throughout Southern California, with a tenth on the way. They provide a range of fertility-based clinic services including IVF, gender selection, genetic testing, egg and sperm donations and surrogacy. Additionally, they have a corporate HQ, constituting a network of more than 300 employees, all of which rely on IT.
Drew Dancel, IT Manager for Huntington Reproductive Centers, knows he and his team can’t take care of an IT environment this big on their own.
That’s why he trusts Mathe to fill in the gaps whenever needed.
“Managing 300 people, especially with the personnel cuts that we’ve had lately due to COVID has been difficult, but we can always rely on Mathe to fill in the gaps,” says Drew. “Even if it’s something that we typically do, we can go ahead and submit a ticket with Mathe and have them take care of it.”
Drew and the Huntington Reproductive Centers IT team are confident in Mathe, because they’re a known and trusted name in the fertility and greater healthcare community. Mathe understands the work that Huntington Reproductive Centers’ staff does, is familiar with the vendors whose software they rely on, and they know the ins and outs of HIPAA compliance.
“For them to know our vendors (we have a lot of third-party software) and the fact that Mathe is familiar with them and works alongside them is a big benefit to us,” says Drew. “The people that we reach out to all have worked with Mathe already. It makes it very easy to work together.”
Mathe Saves This Fertility Clinic Money And Eliminates “Tedious” Work By Hosting Patient Data In A Private Cloud
The core service Mathe delivers for Huntington Reproductive Centers is the hosting of their software and data in a meticulously maintained and supported private cloud.
“They host all of our data,” says Drew. “All of our servers are with them, and our patient data is with them. So we rely on them for security and for uptime.”
Huntington Reproductive Centers opted to have Mathe host their patient data and line of business software for two primary reasons:
Outsourced Management
Hosting their systems on-site before working with Mathe was a lot of work for the Huntington Reproductive Centers IT staff. Daily maintenance would consume the IT team’s working hours, leaving them with little time for anything else.
“To be able to have multiple servers running with daily backups, it did get tedious, and it was too much for one or two people to handle, so we did need a data center type environment,” says Drew.
By outsourcing these management tasks to Mathe, Huntington Reproductive Centers’ IT staff can focus on other work, while having confidence that their patient data is being supported and secured properly.
Cost Savings
In addition to being a lot of work, managing an on-site infrastructure is expensive.
Servers require proper housing and storage, and drain power as well. Maintaining an on-site infrastructure also means expanding it by purchasing and installing new servers as the organization grows.
“The other thing was expense,” says Drew. “Servers are expensive, and the company did not want to pay or pump more money into an on-premise solution. They felt that moving to the cloud would be cheaper and more scalable.”
By hosting their data in Mathe’s private cloud, Huntington Reproductive Centers can leave the storage and scaling to us. When their organization grows and they need more space, they don’t have to purchase, install and store new servers — they just expand further into our private cloud.
Mathe Keeps This Patient-Facing Fertility Clinic Operational Through The COVID-19 Pandemic
Uptime is a priority for Huntington Reproductive Centers.
As a patient-facing business, any degree of downtime at any location has immediate effects on their staff, their patients, and therefore, their reputation.
“Our clinics do keep somewhat normal hours, but one works around the clock, so it’s important that all of our users can connect at any time and get their work done,” says Drew.
If their IT systems are down, patients can’t schedule appointments, and can’t get the results of their tests in the expected time frame.
“Being down for us is a big issue because we’re patient-facing,” says Drew. “We don’t want the patients to not be able to get scheduled, or not get their results immediately. Mathe has been doing a really good job at keeping us running.”
This risk of downtime, delays, and service issues was only made worse by the COVID-19 pandemic. Huntington Reproductive Centers had to move to a hybrid work model, with some users still working out of clinics, and others working from home.
Managing this working model without affecting the patient experience would have been near-impossible without Mathe’s expert assistance.
“With this whole COVID thing happening, Mathe was extremely helpful, and they were able to get us fired up,” says Drew. “Lately there have been a lot of changes in our company, management-wise, policy-wise, and Mathe has been able to help us out with a lot of that.”
Mathe Keeps This Fertility Clinic’s Software Up To Date And Compatible With New Hardware
While Mathe hosts Huntington Reproductive Centers’ data offsite, the fertility clinics still have desktops and other user-facing hardware in use on location.
Keeping their onsite hardware optimized is an ongoing process for Drew and the Huntington Reproductive Centers IT team, and Mathe plays a big role in that.
“Mathe recently upgraded our Citrix from an older version to the latest version,” says Drew. “That helps a lot, especially with new hardware that comes on.”
Recently, the Huntington Reproductive Centers IT team has been overseeing an organization-wide update of their hardware.
To do so, they had to make sure their software (Citrix, in particular) was up to date and compatible with the new desktops they would be installing for the end-users. They knew they could rely on Mathe to handle that update.
“We’ve been rolling out kind of a hardware refresh, where everyone gets a new desktop, and it has to be compatible, so that helps us a lot that we’re on the latest Citrix platform,” says Drew.
Mathe Simplifies HIPAA Audits For This Fertility Clinic
“Another thing that they’ve been very helpful with are audits,” says Drew.
Mathe doesn’t just provide IT management and direct IT support — they go above and beyond to help wherever they can. For example, on occasion, Huntington Reproductive Centers will have their HIPAA compliance audited.
Audits are an expected part of doing business for healthcare organizations like Huntington Reproductive Centers. In order to comply with the process, they’re expected to gather a lot of information and documentation.
Finding the exact resources required isn’t always easy for their staff — fortunately, they have Mathe on their side.
“We do get audited every year by one of the big four, and Mathe has helped out tremendously with getting all the info that’s requested,” says Drew. “The fact that they’re in the industry, they understand HIPAA, they understand the cybersecurity around it, they’ve been a resource for us, so we can ask them their opinion.”
Mathe Isn’t Just Some Vendor For This Fertility Clinic — Mathe Is A True Business Partner
The main value that Mathe delivers for Drew, his IT team, and their hundreds of end-users is that they’re not some distant vendor, and they don’t treat Huntington Reproductive Centers like a faceless client.
“Mathe is more of a business partner, rather than just a vendor,” says Drew. “You get to know the guys on a personal level — that’s always great.”
Mathe is an extension of Huntington Reproductive Centers’ IT team. With our help, Huntington Reproductive Centers knows their patient data is secured and backed up, and that they always have someone to call for help with IT issues or HIPAA audits. They trust in Mathe because they know we’re focused on their success.
“The fact that they’re looking for your business to succeed at the same time, it’s a huge benefit,” says Drew. “It’s something you don’t get with larger companies.”
With over 35 years in the business of supporting and implementing technology for the SME market, and 6 years previously in Corporate IT and Voice. I have seen a great deal of change. The only common thread is I have always focused on the Business Wise application of Technology. We always try to look 5 years ahead of the current technology to make sure our clients are on the right track to meet current and future needs.
