Testimonials

“Clinton Pownall knows our business in such exquisite detail, I always feel he’s functioning at a level that’s no different than if he owned our company.”

– Dr. Robert Posniak, Radiologist and a Co-Founder Sand Lake Imaging

Computer Business Keeps IT for Sand Lake Imaging’s Three Locations Up and Running with “Concierge-Like” Service

Situation
Sand Lake Imaging has served the patients & physicians of Central Florida for more than 15 years. With three convenient Central Florida locations, Orlando, Maitland, and Lady Lake, Sand Lake Imaging dedicates itself to providing the highest quality diagnostic radiology to the patients and physicians of Central Florida in a personal, cost-effective, and timely manner.

All of Sand Lake Imaging’s radiologists are board-certified by the American College of Radiology. Physicians include a former attending radiologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a former faculty member at Harvard Medical School, and a former faculty member at the University of Miami School of Medicine.

With some 120 employees, including six radiologists, Sand Lake Imaging requires state-of-the-art IT support. The need for first-rate IT support emerged some years ago when Sand Lake’s first IT managed service provider was slow to respond and didn’t prevent downtime.

Solution
Sand Lake Imaging selected computer Business Consultants to be its IT business partner. There was a night and day difference in the level of IT support it received and the disappearance of unplanned downtime.

Since then, Computer Business has guided Sand Lake through several modernization projects. Computer Business established a robust IT infrastructure, enhanced backup systems, and enlarged storage. There is now in place a high-availability architecture with automatic failover should a server go down.

“Radiology Has Evolved Into an IT-Centric Business”
According to Dr. Robert Posniak, a radiologist and a co-founder of Sand Lake Imaging, Computer Business has proven its value over and over during the years it has supported Sand Lake Imaging. He notes that year by year, an industry-leading IT infrastructure has become ever more critical.

“Radiology has evolved into an IT-centric business,” Dr. Posniak says. “Every piece of imaging equipment is digital. Every piece of information about the patient, from the order requesting the patient’s exam, to keeping track of the patient’s information, to scheduling their exam, to processing their exam, to transmitting images to our radiology workstations for reading and reporting, to storing the images safely, to distributing our reports to the referring physician, to forwarding reports to other requesting physicians or healthcare institutions, as well as integrating with health insurance and related applications—all in safe, secure, and HIPAA [Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act]-compliant manner—is all done digitally. So, everything about radiology is completely dependent on always being at the forefront of a great integrated digital network, which is what we have, working closely with Computer Business Consultants.”

Solution Milestones
Some of the initiatives Computer Business has led for Sand Lake Imaging include:

• Robust Backup System. One of the first things Computer Business addressed when they began working with Sand Lake Imaging was deploying a powerful backup system to replace an inadequate one. Backing up all data for the Sand Lake Imaging practice was seen as mission-critical.
• Server Virtualization. Computer Business consolidated dozens of stand-alone servers into a virtualized environment. In addition to providing operational efficiencies, virtualization eliminates the disruption and downtime from a stand-alone server failing.
• Disaster Recovery. Computer Business implemented a high-availability and disaster recovery architecture with automated failover as part of the virtualization effort. Thus, individual components can fail without disrupting work within Sand Lake Imaging.
• Expanded Storage. Computer Business has helped Sand Lake Imaging lead the way with the latest imaging technology, including resizing storage capabilities. As imaging technology has advanced, so has the size of images. The practice’s storage consists of hundreds of terabytes of data, with dozens of terabytes added each year.
• Security. Computer Business implemented tight cybersecurity technology across the IT infrastructure supporting all three Sand Lake Imaging locations. With the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, Computer Business went to the radiologists’ homes to secure their radiology workstations, configure firewalls, and provide additional layers of security for remote working. Computer Business also offers comprehensive protection for the backend IT infrastructure, continually applying security releases and upgrading software to help ensure cyber security.
• Proactive Monitoring. Computer Business provides 24×7 monitoring of Sand Lake Imaging’s IT infrastructure, detecting and resolving issues before they can impact operations of the practice.

Benefits
Sand Lake Imaging has enjoyed many benefits from working with Computer Business, including gaining an “A-to-Z complete wrap-around IT solution,” keeping the practice up and running, immediate response times, proactive service, concierge-like treatment, and tight security.

Providing an “A-to-Z, Complete Wrap-Around IT Solution”

Sand Lake Imaging is impressed with the entire team at Computer Business, including Clinton Pownall, CEO and Founder of Computer Business.

“Clinton Pownall knows our business in such exquisite detail,” says Dr. Posniak. “I always feel he’s functioning at a level that’s no different than if he owned our company; he would be doing it exactly the same way.”

Sand Lake Imaging also appreciates the completeness with which Computer Business meets their IT needs.

“The bottom line is Computer Business provides an A-to-Z complete wrap-around IT solution, from design to implementation to maintenance to upgrading, and every aspect of the IT process becomes seamless and is really handled at the highest level with fantastic records to document what’s going on, complete access to all information that’s needed by the owners of Sand Lake Imaging, and the highest level of IT knowledge necessary to provide all of that process to people in my business, and I assume to other businesses, as well,” Dr. Posniak says. “I’m certainly not an IT person, but I feel that everything about what’s happening in our business is the latest and the most sophisticated—and with great security.”

Keeping the Practice Up and Running
Keeping the practice up and running without pause is vital to Sand Lake Imaging across its three locations. “We need uptime near 100% all the time because we’re always working,” says Dr. Stephen Bravo, Co-Founder and Director of Research at Sand Lake Imaging. “Since we’re so busy and we’re open from 6 a.m. to 10 and 11 p.m. every day, including on weekends, unfailing uptime is necessary in order to ensure efficiency in operations. If that uptime’s not available, it markedly adversely impacts the efficiency of our radiologists and our entire workflow for the offices. Computer Business delivers this uptime.”

Uptime is vital to the patients and referring physicians that Sand Lake Imaging serves.

“The radiologists must have access to their computers around the clock because they might be reading images from home at night or working offsite,” Giles says. “So, if their computers are not working for whatever reason, the reports are delayed, which would mean unhappy patients and unhappy referring physicians. This is why it is so critically important to keep all the moving parts working, which is exactly what Computer Business does for us.” exactly what Computer Business does for us.”

Rebekah Martinez, Office Manager of the Lady Lake Location of Sand Lake Imaging, who also serves as the organization’s IT Liaison, says it is a rare occurrence for anyone ever to notice a pause in service—even when changes are happening behind the scenes.

“If something goes down, we barely see a flinch,” Martinez says. “The other day, at six in the morning, an employee had difficulty signing in, so she messaged me. I contacted Computer Business, and they were surprised anyone had noticed because the pause had been so brief. There had been a failure, and it had already been corrected when I called. I was definitely impressed by that.”

Immediate Response Time: “Making House Calls to the Doctors”
The technology supporting a radiology practice is “incredibly complex,” according to Computer Business. With so many moving parts, so many integrated systems and applications, issues will arise. To minimize disruptions, Computer Business works directly with the other vendors, so Sand Lake Imaging has to make a single call if there is a problem. Computer Business technicians will deliberate to get the matter resolved as soon as possible.

“Computer Business is very responsive to the needs of our practice in real time, which is exceptionally important to us, both at the offices and for doctors’ workstations at home, and even for our laptops,” Dr. Bravo says. “For example, I’ve been having some issues with Microsoft Teams meetings, and as we speak,  Pete is on my laptop to make sure that it works appropriately. They’re always responsive, even on weekends and nights.”

Computer Business Consultants’ level of service contrasts with what one hears from some of their colleagues working for other organizations.

“One of our referring physicians was down for more than a week on their computer system,” Giles says. “They were down for days and days and didn’t seem to be too upset about it. I would have been screaming that we needed our system back up and running, but they’re not used to the level of service with immediate response times that we have. I guess it’s like: What you don’t know, you don’t know.”

Giles, who was with Sand Lake Imaging before engaging with Computer Business, has a deep appreciation for how thoroughly Computer Business Consultants tend to the practice’s IT needs.

“Computer Business is a full-service IT company,” Giles says. “It is like a concierge service. We can call them 24 hours a day. If we have issues, they take care of it. They’ve designated [an employee] to work with us, and he has been amazing. He knows the insides and outs of everything. So, if the radiologists have any issues or the front desk has issues, I just call [our designated employee], and he takes care of it. Working with Clinton Pownall’s company, it’s all concierge, all the time. We are always given VIP treatment.”

Dr. Posniak agrees: “Whenever Computer Business makes a recommendation, I know that the recommendation is for the benefit of the company, and it’s not for their own gain.”

Proactive Service
Dr. Bravo notes that Clinton Pownall and the rest of the Computer Business team have developed such a deep understanding of the Sand Lake Imaging practice and its needs that it allows them to provide proactive service—and guidance.

“Their overall knowledge of our operations is so deep that they can help us forecast what our future needs will be,” Dr. Bravo says. “This helps us be proactive, rather than reactive, as we grow into our future.”

On a day-by-day basis, this proactive approach helps eliminate downtime. “Clinton’s company is constantly monitoring our servers,” Giles says. “If our systems need to be updated, Computer Business is proactive. They get that scheduled in the middle of the night so that we’re not dealing with that during the day. They’re always making sure after they do an upgrade that all the workstations are up and running. They log into each one and take care of it. And they make sure we have spare workstations ready to go in case one ever goes down, so it can be used while the other is repaired or replaced.”

Tight Security
Sand Lake Imaging benefits from the complete security practice that Computer Business incorporates into its management of the practice’s IT infrastructure. Computer Business constantly monitors systems for attempted breaches. They continually update software, firmware, and other elements to ensure Sand Lake Imaging’s security with the latest updates.

“Security is extremely important to us, including meeting our requirements for securing data under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act,” says Dr. Bravo. “Every HIPAA violation’s a $10,000 fine. In a matter of minutes, you could have thousands of HIPAA violations if a hacker got access to our system. So, from that standpoint, it’s very important.”

Dr. Bravo notes that his organization also needs to be secured from ransomware and other forms of digital attacks. “We know that we have tremendous security in place,” Dr. Bravo says. “We value Clinton’s background working with government agencies to ensure appropriate compliance with security issues is maintained. We know that we have a good partner in keeping our operations secure.”