Customer Solution Case Study
British Columbia's Interior Health Authority Improves Patient Care and Reduces Costs
Overview
Country or Region: Canada
Industry: Healthcare
Customer Profile
Interior Health was formed when 19 former health authorities serving the health care needs of interior British Columbia were merged into a single entity.
Business Situation
Its highly mobile workforce was struggling with an unreliable remote access system. There was concern that the system's patchwork of different access modes left sensitive business data too much at risk.
Solution
Interior Health decided to base its remote access system on Microsoft® Windows Server™ 2003. The choice was motivated not only by its cost-efficiency, but also by its scalability, security, and high performance.
Benefits
n Optimal performance
n Highly scalable
n Helps lower support time and costs
n Easy to use / “It's not often that going with a brand new technology is a good choice. In this case it's been great.”
Pat Ryan, Chief Information Officer, Interior Health Authority
Headquartered out of Kelowna, British Columbia, the Interior Health Authority is a central healthcare administration. It employs close to 17,000 nurses and health care staff, integrated with 1,200 physicians many of whom work remotely in the field. The organization was struggling with the poor performance and heavy support requirements of its existing remote access system and decided to create a new remote access system based on Microsoft® Windows Server™ 2003 operating system. Windows Server 2003 has enabled the organization to reduce IT operating costs, helped improve security of information, and reduced time spent on the road while placing new tools in the hands of its employees.
Situation
Upon creation, the Information and Technology Department proposed a 12-month project to completely overhaul the existing business and IT infrastructure, creating a single business system. The transition meant consolidating 22 different e-mail systems, multiple payroll structures, and disconnected financial and material management systems. Throughout this process, the organization was successful in completing the project objectives and was still able to provide the highest level of patient care to residents within the region.
This Herculean task fell on the shoulders of Interior Health's new IT, Financial, and Materials Management departments. These departments were asked to bridge the gap between the region’s 183 different health delivery locations and its highly mobile workforce.
"Interior Health employs a considerable number of home care nurses, who constantly journey great distances to help their patients. Office hours also don't mean much for doctors. They often travel from home to a hospital in the middle of the night," says Roy Southby, IT Director of Technology Services for Interior Health Authority. "In order to reduce the amount of travel of our employees and physicians, we decided it was crucial to build a ubiquitous remote access system."
Due to the geography of the region, these efforts were also being driven by safety concerns.
"Central British Columbia is surrounded by mountains and in the wintertime mountain roads can be very dangerous," says Chris Mazurkewich, Chief Operating Officer of Strategic and Corporate Services for Interior Health Authority. "We've had both a nurse and a physician killed because of bad road conditions. That's perhaps a unique issue for us to deal with, but it's a serious concern and makes this kind of bridging-the-geographical-gap technology absolutely critical."
Interior Health had a remote access system in place already, but its varied access modes, ranging from dial-up modems to virtual private network (VPN) connections, created serious security concerns for IT staff. The system was also slow and unreliable, leading IT staff to contact Microsoft Canada in search of help. Microsoft selected NexInnovations Inc. to help implement the terminal server solution based on Microsoft® Windows Server™ 2003 operating system, part of Microsoft Windows Server System™ integrated server software.
Solution
IT staff at Interior Health invited Microsoft and NexInnovations to design and implement a remote access solution. In June of 2002, after briefly considering another thin client solution, the decision to deploy Windows Sever 2003 was made. The organization found the Microsoft-based solution easily integrated into its existing infrastructure and offered unmatched scalability and ease of use.
Working with the Experts
Microsoft Services, together with NexInnovations, worked with Interior Health on the selection and deployment of a server solution. NexInnovations Inc., one of Canada's largest independent technology services providers, did extensive research and testing of various server solutions prior to recommending Windows Server 2003. Microsoft Services provided technical expertise and support to help ensure the solution met Interior Health's business and technology goals.
"We made a point of involving as many people in the testing and design process for this project as possible to ensure the remote access system would really make a difference in its users' ability to carry out their jobs," says Jason Stoik, Consultant at NexInnovations Inc. "In the end Windows Server 2003 features, such as load balancing and group policies, made the solution stand out above all others."
Dependable Technology
Windows Server 2003 is designed for mission-critical server workloads and is a recommended operating system for servers that run networking, messaging, inventory, and customer service systems. The solution has enhanced reliability, thanks to a range of new and improved features including memory mirroring, Hot Add Memory, and health detection in Internet Information Services (IIS) version 6.0.
Interior Health ensures clinical information is safeguarded with highest levels of security with the assistance of key Windows Server 2003 features, such as cross-forest trusts in the Active Directory® service in addition to Microsoft .NET Passport authentication system. The server technology enables easy encryption of data, in addition to taking advantage of software restriction policies that can be used to prevent damage caused by viruses and other malicious code.
"The organization has benefited greatly from the new group policies in Windows Server 2003, which allow the IT department to restrict potentially hazardous user activity like browsing external Internet pages," Stoik says. "The solution allows for these restrictions to be set centrally for all users, instead of requiring IT to lock down each server individually."
Identity management features of Active Directory also helped the organization ensure only authorized personnel will have access to the clinical system.
Solution that Grows with Business Needs
As Interior Health is continually adding new users to its remote access system, the IT department's decision to choose the Windows Server 2003−based solution was motivated in large part by its scalability. Its blade server−based solution is able to scale easily from a single server blade with dual Zeon CPU servers to multiple blade servers, continually increasing capacity and performance capability.
Windows Server 2003 is also faster than its predecessors, with up to 140 percent better file system performance and significantly faster performance for Active Directory, XML-based Web services, Terminal Services, and networking.
"The load balancing features of Windows Server 2003 is one of the most significant advantages over previous versions of Microsoft Terminal Server," says Southby. "The solution is even more impressive when you consider the security features and the stable environment it's helped us create."
Benefits
Previous experience with thin client solutions led Interior Health IT staff to expect a month-long deployment. The Windows Server 2003−based solution was up and running on day three of implementation. By choosing Windows Server 2003, the organization avoided payment of client access license fees, saving over $400,000 at deployment. These savings are expected to increase with each additional user added to the system.
Painless Deployment
Interior Health has been able to continually expand the remote access system to new clinics and hospitals with little IT support time required. The Web-based solution not only reduces the amount of travel for doctors and nurses, but it's also keeping IT staff closer to home. They no longer need to be on-site to introduce the system to new users.
To date, Interior Health has signed on over a 1,000 users to its Windows Server 2003−based remote access system and does not expect the project to wrap up any time soon, if at all.
"This solution absolutely hit the mark for us at a time when we really needed it," says Pat Ryan, Chief Information Officer for Interior Health. "User response has been extremely positive. As the organization grows, we expect we'll just keep adding users."
Placing Tools in the Hands of Doctors and Nurses
One of the immediate benefits of introducing the Windows Server 2003−based remote access system has been the reduction in laptops the organization has to provide its administrative workers.
Because users can now turn any PC into their office desktop, Interior Health will transfer close to 150 laptops from administrative departments to nurses and clinical staff and this number will continue to grow. This means significant cost savings in terms of new laptops, which would otherwise have to be purchased. It also helps ensure that frontline health care workers have access to information they need when they need it, almost anywhere they may be.
Laptops have now been assigned to home care nurses who assess and treat patients in their homes. Because the communities that make up Interior Health Authority are largely rural and remote, these nurses often have to travel to locations far away from their offices.
"If you live in a small community and are due to have a baby, chances are you'll have to travel to a larger city center's hospital, which will then e-mail the local nurse," says Mazurkewich. "When mom and baby come in for a check up, their nurse will now already have their medical information. In the old days all you could do was hope like heck that the mailed information would actually get to the nurse before the baby did."
Patient Care Anytime, Anywhere
Although Interior Health officials would prefer that their physicians rest on the weekends, there is no way to predict when patients will need help. Weekend and nighttime work is a fact of life for doctors and nurses.
The Windows Server 2003−based solution has allowed health care workers to turn any computer into a portal into their office, greatly reducing travel and after-hours office time. Wherever they are, Interior Health workers can get to their files and their complete desktop virtually. And they can do it fast.
Doctors and nurses across Interior Health have also been immensely impressed with how easy the system is to use. Managing extremely hectic schedules on a daily basis means that they do not have time to spend on learning a complicated technology solution. The IT department has been able to use Windows Server 2003 technology, however, to build out a system that looks and performs like the systems used within hospitals and clinics every day.
"I fell in love with it the first time I used it," says Mazurkewich. "All I needed to do to get my files was log on to the Internet. I couldn't believe how easy to use this was. I'm far from being a power user, so if I can learn how to use this quickly and easily then anybody can use it."
Looking to the Future
Deeply committed to providing the best possible care to its patients, Interior Health is already investigating new ways technology can assist health care workers. The IT department is examining the possibility of making the remote access system truly mobile by introducing it to handheld platforms such as the Pocket PC. The organization would also like to use Microsoft .NET connection software to deliver innovative solutions to its employees. For example, investigating how .NET-based servers could be used to allow rural and remote health care facilities to better access British Columbia's Internet Public Health Information System.
"Deploying solutions that are low risk is one of our key philosophies. The information our systems handle is just too important. Usually, we don't adopt technology that hasn't been already proven by other customers, but in this case we have done it," says Ryan. "It's not often that going with a brand new technology is a good choice. In this case it's been great."
Microsoft Windows Server System
Microsoft Windows Server System integrated server infrastructure software is designed to support end-to-end solutions built on the Windows Server operating system. Windows Server System creates an infrastructure based on integrated innovation, Microsoft's holistic approach to building products and solutions that are intrinsically designed to work together and interact seamlessly with other data and applications across your IT environment. This helps you reduce the costs of ongoing operations, deliver a more secure and reliable IT infrastructure, and drive valuable new capabilities for the future growth of your business.
For more information about Windows Server System, go to:
www.microsoft.com/windowsserversystem