How do you know whether your IT support is actually working? Many administrators rely on gut feeling: Do people complain? Is the loudest manager happy? Gut feeling has value, but it misses patterns. A few simple numbers, reviewed monthly, tell you far more about how well technology supports your staff and residents.
You do not need a data analyst. Ask your IT team or managed provider for these five measures, and know what to do with them.
What it is: How long it takes from the moment a ticket is submitted until a human acknowledges it and starts working on it.
Why it matters: Staff who hear nothing for hours stop reporting problems, and then those problems become bigger ones. For issues affecting resident care, a quick response is essential.
What to look for: Targets by priority. For example, an issue that stops medication documentation might aim for a response within minutes, while a request for a new monitor might aim for a business day. Whatever you set, compare actual results to the targets.
What it is: How long it takes from ticket creation until the problem is fixed and confirmed.
Why it matters: This is what staff feel. Average time can hide problems, so ask also for the longest-open tickets and for results by priority level.
What to look for: Trends over time and a short list of aging tickets with explanations.
What it is: The share of tickets solved on the first interaction without escalation or callbacks.
Why it matters: Password resets, printer issues and common software problems should usually be handled quickly. A low rate may indicate poor training, missing documentation or underlying issues, such as failing hardware.
What to look for: Gradual improvement as the support team learns your environment. Beware of pushing this number so hard that technicians close tickets before the problem is truly fixed.
What it is: How often the same problem returns for the same person, device or location, or how often tickets are reopened.
Why it matters: Repeat issues point to root causes. A hallway where Wi-Fi keeps dropping, a model of laptop failing early or a program that crashes after updates all show up here.
What to look for: Problems that appear three or more times. Ask your provider for a root-cause plan, not another quick fix.
What it is: A short survey after a ticket closes, such as a simple good, okay or bad rating with an optional comment.
Why it matters: It captures experience that timing alone does not. A ticket closed quickly with a rude or confusing interaction is not a success.
What to look for: Response rates and written comments. Read the negative ones, since they often contain specific, fixable issues.
Ticket volume by category and location: Shows where training or equipment upgrades could reduce demand.
After-hours tickets: Important in 24-hour care settings.
Backlog: The number of open tickets at the end of each week.
Security-related tickets: Reports of phishing and lockouts may indicate awareness levels.
Ask for a one-page report with the five measures, compared to the prior month.
Discuss the top three recurring issues and agree on fixes.
Review any tickets that affected resident care.
Decide on one improvement to try next month.
Write down the action items and revisit them.
Measuring only speed. Fast but wrong is not helpful.
Comparing facilities unfairly. A building with old equipment will have different numbers than a new one.
Treating metrics as punishment. They are meant to find process problems.
Ignoring the people closest to the work. Ask a few nurses and aides what frustrates them. Their answers add context the numbers cannot.
If you work with a managed provider, make sure response and resolution targets are written into the agreement, with a clear definition of each priority level. Ask how the provider reports on them.
UnityCare IT provides regular, plain-language service reports to healthcare clients and reviews recurring issues together with administrators. If you would like to see what a useful monthly report looks like, we are glad to share an example format.
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New customers: start@unitycareit.com
Existing customers: support@unitycareit.com
Address: 2524 N Broadway Ste 554 PMB 947974, Edmond, Oklahoma 73034