3 Tips to Help Keep Business on Track in Light of the Coronavirus

The rising concern of COVID-19 has shaken everyone, and we’ve already seen the impact it has had on our grocery supplies, tradeshows and events, daily outings, and really, how businesses are conducting daily business. We recognize that this situation has impacted many people in numerous ways, and that’s why we’d like to offer a few tips to help you work in this environment and keep business moving.

Tip #1: Set Up a Work from Home Space
The CDC has recommended that everyone hunker down and practice social distancing – and in fact these lockdowns have become a mandate in many states. In doing so, a lot of companies are urging their employees to work from home. While this isn’t practical for all positions, a lot of people have found themselves in a new workspace they’re not accustomed to. Having been an entirely remote workforce all 30 years of company existence, the team at iatricSystems has a few tips for working from home.

• Working from home provides more flexibility, but it’s best if you decide on a work schedule and stick to it – and don’t forget to let your team know when you’re available.
• Whether it’s your kitchen table, a corner of your bedroom, or something in-between, your ‘office’ is now just that. Try to minimize distractions in your office during your workday.
• It’s easy for a company to turn into a bunch of silos if you’re not communicating, connect with your team virtually through meetings, email, and instant messaging.
• Wi-Fi can be unreliable, consider hooking up to an ethernet cable for more uptime and productivity.
• It’s common for remote workers to forget to take a break, which leads to fatigue. Build in breaks just like you would in an office space – get up, grab some coffee, eat lunch, and move around.

These tips are just a few of our favorites, if you’d like more, check out this HIStalk thread.

Tip #2: Take Advantage of Digital Conferences
With the concern of large gatherings speeding up the spread of COVID-19, we’ve seen many cancellations of events, tradeshows, and conferences. These cancellations are unfortunate for both vendors and attendees, because the benefit of face-to-face interaction is lost.

In light of the outbreak, most major conferences, likes HIMSS20, have announced a digital conference to recreate – as much as possible – a similar in-person experience. We suggest you think beyond the events you already registered for and look into the events that you couldn’t attend because of distance and budget. Plus, you can specifically tune into the sessions or webinars that pique your interest to get the information you need without the associated high cost of attending a large event.

Tip #3: Do Your Research and Schedule Virtual Meetings
Smart businesses have already sent out virtual meeting invites to people they were planning to speak with at events. But if you didn’t have any meetings scheduled, and simply intended to walk the aisles of the tradeshow floor, you might be out of resources to get the information you needed to solve challenges or find new innovative solutions that can help your organization.

Luckily, not all is lost – you can still do your own research to seek out answers to your IT challenges by reaching out to the “all-knowing” Google for answers. Utilize keywords to search for topics you need help with, such as “patient privacy monitoring”, or you can type in full questions like “how can I secure third-party access to my networks”? If you’re worried about finding a reliable vendor, you can also reach out to your colleagues and peers in your industry to see if they can refer you to a company that can help. And of course, you can also find some great resources on the iatricSystems website and we’d love to ‘see’ you there!

One other concern, as more workers are moving to a remote environment is security. Join our partner GreyCastle Security on Wednesday March 25th at 2pm ET as they offer their cybersecurity awareness training for free to help your employees tackle the "new normal" while working from home.

Please feel free to reach out to our team if you have any questions or would like to schedule a virtual meeting with one of our experts.