Lansing Urgent Care – Technology Plan

Lansing Urgent Care, a walk in, non-emergent care healthcare clinic with 8 locations in mid-Michigan, partnered with Richardson & Richardson to develop a comprehensive I.T. strategy to allow for rapid, sustainable growth across the region.

Lansing Urgent Care is a walk in, non-emergent care provider based in Lansing, Michigan. The organization focuses on creating a warm, friendly, professional experience by delivering high quality, accessible health care services for the Lansing metropolitan and surrounding areas. Ian Richardson first became associated with Lansing Urgent Care in 2014, when the organization had 3 locations that functioned 7 days a week, 364 days per year between the hours of 9am and 9pm.

Through discussions with the ownership and senior management, Richardson documented three strategic and operational struggles that the organization wanted to solve through effective technology planning:

• The organization was trying to embrace cloud as an overall strategy for safe, secure, on-demand access to healthcare information, but had no ability to handle internet failures at the clinics and had critical services such as servers and phones hosted in specific clinic locations.
• The organization wanted to expand but had struggled greatly with previous location “launches” – technology was scattered, hap-hazard, and unreliable.
•  The company was committed to having secure IT systems but didn’t have a plan on how to proceed with improving security without impacting accessibility of systems.

Lansing Urgent Care hadn’t been static before engaging Richardson – the organization had been working with other consulting organizations, but the communication and efficacy of the solutions presented was not meeting the standards the organization held itself to. After 8 years of business, something had to change in the fundamental strategy to achieve the organizations goals. Hearing about Richardson through the local Healthcare community, Lansing Urgent Care reached out to get started.

Richardson and his team went to the clinics and implemented their strategic technology planning process. An inventory of the organization was created, proactive steps around stability and functionality were planned and implemented, and the big topics were analyzed, classified, and prioritized. In coordination with the management team, Richardson implemented:

• A central datacenter for servers and phones to be hosted in, Lansing Urgent Care gained a “Private Cloud” that was highly reliable and removed the risk of a single clinic paralyzing the organization.
• A security strategy that could be implemented step by step to improve the organization’s posture, in alignment with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) small business cyber-security framework.
• A systemized process for opening clinics, where each clinic would have the identical technology solutions, down to layout and how the technology was configured, so the clinic was “ready for business” on day 1.

This IT strategy allowed Lansing Urgent care to not only pursue their organizational goals, but to grow in a rapid fashion. Over the next 7 years, the company opened 5 new clinics, as well as a second business arm focusing on cosmetic medical procedures, capturing new services in the existing market. Lansing Urgent Care asked probing questions on the strategy, ensuring that each need was well defined and met properly, as well as worked in tandem with Richardson and his team to ensure that the implementation of the strategy went smoothly, and as a result reaped the rewards of a highly systematized, well organized technology infrastructure. The organization continues its upward trend today, thriving through unique business challenges like the Covid-19 pandemic, and continuing to evaluate and capture new opportunities.

If your business is struggling to capture opportunities or have a plan around technology, Richardson & Richardson can help. Take a look at our IT Planning services to learn more, or book a 90 minute complimentary session with the Richardsons to get started on getting your technology to work for you.