As a Senior Managed Services Consultant in Connection’s Center of Excellence for Managed Services, I’m a subject matter expert in healthcare information technology, having worked three years inside a large, nationwide healthcare IDN and five years in smaller care provider organizations. Although I’ve been with Connection for a little over seven years, my time on the provider side matters. I know what it feels like when you’re the one accountable, when you’re trying to keep clinicians productive, systems online, and leadership satisfied—all while navigating funding constraints and relentless regulatory pressure. I’ve been on both sides, both building internal IT teams and stepping in as a partner to extend them. What I know is this: doing everything internally and relying on your existing staff is possible, but it’s painful, challenging, and expensive.
What Challenges Are Healthcare IT Teams Facing?
Same challenges. Different versions. Regulations change. Technologies evolve. Security expectations have increased. Every few years, the “problem set” shifts, but the pressure compounds. You’re expected to absorb that complexity and cut costs at the same time. And that’s before you’re asked to factor in supply chain constraints and current geopolitical climate.
I hear it all the time:
“Can you spend less?”
“Can you do it with fewer people?”
“Can you still support more systems?”
Meanwhile, the tools aren’t getting simpler. They’re getting bigger, more complex, and more integrated across the clinical environment.
What Happens When Budgets Shrink but Expectations Don’t?
That’s where things really tighten. When I was in healthcare, IT budgets hovered around 4.5% to 5% of operating budgets. Today, I’m seeing teams operate closer to 3% or even less. That’s not incremental, it’s an insurmountable squeeze.
And the reality underneath it?
- Nonprofits are trying to stay afloat
- For-profits are balancing shareholder expectations with care delivery
- IT leaders are stuck in the middle, trying to make all of it work
So you get stretched thinner, and your teams get pulled in too many directions. Employee satisfaction scores plummet, resulting in higher employee turnover, and strategic work starts taking a back seat to operational survival. That’s where on-site deployment teams shine. The work is focused on repeatable execution that keeps projects moving without pulling your internal team off mission-critical work. It’s a strong example of how managed services can create immediate breathing room before broader operational demands start to strain your organization.
Where Do Managed Services Actually Make a Difference?
Let’s get practical. When you partner with Connection, you’re not just offloading work—you’re extending your team with people who have already seen what you’re dealing with. I’ve worked on deployment programs where healthcare organizations needed large volumes of devices installed—from clinical workstations and our Healthcare-in-a-Box solution, to monitor arms across care continuums. On paper, it sounds straightforward.
In reality?
- You’re coordinating across floors, departments, and campuses in a place where patients are getting care in real time
- You’re managing asset tracking, data capture, and turnover of old equipment
- You’re aligning project timelines with budget approvals and operational readiness
I’ve personally worked through statements of work where we’re coordinating the replacement of hundreds, even thousands of devices, sequencing phases based on fiscal year funding and operational constraints. That level of execution discipline is hard to sustain with internal teams alone.
Managed Service Desk—Where the Real Drain Happens
Now let’s talk about the service desk. Your internal teams are spending time on:
- Password resets
- Device issues
- Access requests
- Routine troubleshooting
All necessary. None strategic. Every ticket your senior engineers touch is time not spent on improving clinical workflows or advancing digital initiatives. A managed service desk gives you scalable, consistent support coverage, but more importantly, it allows your strategic resources to operate at the top of their abilities.
Why Does an Experienced Managed Service Provider Matter?
Because pattern recognition matters. When you’ve worked across dozens of healthcare environments, you start to anticipate bottlenecks—whether that’s deployment delays, user adoption challenges, or resource gaps. You don’t just react to problems—you see them coming. That’s something internal teams—no matter how talented—just don’t always have the bandwidth to develop.
What’s the real takeaway? You can absolutely do this internally. I’ve done it. But it’s hard. It’s expensive. And it doesn’t scale well in today’s environment. That’s why more healthcare organizations are rethinking how they extend capacity without overextending internal teams.
By partnering with Connection, you can plug into a model that gives you:
- Depth of expertise without adding headcount
- Scalable support aligned to demand
- Faster execution on deployments
- Relief for your internal team to focus on what matters most
If your team is being asked to reduce cost, absorb complexity, and still deliver more, don’t try to solve that with the same operating model. Look specifically at where on-site deployment services and managed service desk support could immediately take pressure off your team. Identify one initiative or pain point and test what it looks like to extend your organization with the right partner. Because the question isn’t whether the pressure will ease. It’s whether you’re going to keep absorbing it alone—or finally give your team the leverage they need to keep up.
Engage with Connection’s Healthcare IT Experts to see how we are the right managed services partner to help your organization scale smarter, move faster, and stay focused on delivering better care within your healthcare environment.
