IT for dental practices where the chair can't stop.
A dental practice is a clinic, a call centre and a small business at once. Practice management software, digital imaging, patient records, NHS and private billing, a phone system that has to ring, and reception staff who have no time for IT. Foundry keeps the technology running so the surgery does.
Sound familiar?
Common patterns in the working week of dental practices, written the way they tend to sound. They are illustrations, not quotes from clients. If more than one of these is your week, keep reading.
- The practice software server lives in a cupboard next to the compressor and nobody knows when it was last backed up.
- Reception's screen froze mid-booking and the phone hasn't stopped ringing.
- An x-ray took four minutes to load into the chairside screen while the patient waited.
- The CQC inspection is next month and we're not sure where the data-protection paperwork is.
- Our IT person is a friend of the principal and answers when he can.
Your environment
What the business actually depends on.
- Practice management software, often on a server in the practice
- Digital imaging and radiography feeding chairside screens
- Reception PCs, a phone system and online booking that all have to work at once
- Patient records subject to GDPR and clinical record-keeping rules
- NHS connectivity and private billing platforms
- A small team with no one whose job is IT
Your risks
Security, compliance, availability and data.
- Loss of patient records or imaging to a failed server or ransomware
- Downtime that cancels a day of appointments
- Phones failing with the broadband, so patients can't reach you
- GDPR and CQC expectations around data protection and access control
- Unsupported Windows versions on clinical PCs
- Backups that exist but have never been restored
Your problems
The IT frustrations these businesses run into.
- The practice manager fixes IT between patients
- Slow, ageing PCs at reception and chairside
- The practice software vendor and the IT provider blame each other
- Nobody is confident the backup would actually bring the practice back
- Passwords shared across the whole team on the same login
The Foundry solution
Foundry manages the practice's technology remotely: every PC monitored, patched and protected, the practice server backed up to isolated storage and test-restored on a schedule, Microsoft 365 and email run properly, and a cloud phone system that keeps ringing when the broadband doesn't. When the practice software vendor needs a technical environment to work in, we provide it and keep it documented. One monthly cost and a team that answers.
Your Foundry stack
The capabilities of the platform that matter most for dental practices, and what each one is for. Take what you need.
Foundry Support
→ Reception and surgery PCs monitored and patched, helpdesk, Microsoft 365 administration
Foundry Cloud
→ Practice server managed, cloud hosting where it fits, isolated backup, tested recovery
Foundry Connect
→ Cloud phones with failover, Microsoft 365, email, identity
Foundry Secure
→ EDR on clinical PCs, MFA, encryption, email security, Cyber Essentials
Foundry Web
→ Domain in your name, DNS, practice website hosting, certificates
Foundry Portal
→ Secure workspace for referrals and patient documents