Englewood Hospital and Medical Center

Hospital Fosters Efficiency, Enhances Work Environment with Operating System Upgrade

Englewood Hospital and Medical Center relies on its IT environment to help keep staff members productive and patients well cared for. Traditionally upgrading its PCs on an as-needed basis only, the hospital now is standardizing its technology adoption to foster greater efficiency and end-user satisfaction. It has begun an upgrade to the Windows Vista® operating system with the help of Microsoft® Gold Certified Partner Quality Technology Solutions. The deployment to date has been five times faster than previous upgrades and has already produced an increase in system manageability. Security features help the hospital maintain regulatory compliance, and users find that the Instant Search capability makes it easier to find information. In addition, the hospital is providing better support for mobile users, so it can help attract and retain employees by offering improved work/life balance.

Situation

We wanted to make it easier for [employees] to work from home. We felt that, with … Windows Vista, we could encourage flexibility without sacrificing the privacy of patients’ medical information.  Gary Wilhelm Business and Financial Systems Manager Englewood Hospital and Medical Center

A community teaching hospital located in New Jersey, Englewood Hospital offers state-of-the-art, nationally and internationally recognized clinical programs, including the Breast Care Center, the New Jersey Institute for the Advancement of Bloodless Medicine and Surgery, and the Heart and Vascular Institute of New Jersey.

To keep its more than 650 physicians and 2,500 staff members working efficiently, Englewood Hospital relies on its IT network, which includes about 1,000 desktop computers. Multiple users share many of those computers at locations such as nurses’ stations. The hospital runs about 95 applications in its environment.

Historically, Englewood Hospital has been reactive when it comes to the adoption of technological advancements. “Our tendency was to stay with the software versions that worked,” recalls Gary Wilhelm, Business and Financial Systems Manager for Englewood Hospital and Medical Center. A few years ago, however, the hospital decided to take a more proactive stance and established a policy that calls for all desktop computers to run the most current versions of the Windows® operating system and Microsoft® Office programs or, at most, one version behind.

The Englewood Hospital environment was a mix of Microsoft Windows® XP, Windows 2000, Windows 98, Windows 95, and Windows NT® operating systems. Attracted not only by the idea of a standard environment but also by specific features, hospital decision makers opted to implement the Windows Vista® operating system throughout the organization.

Part of the reason for upgrading its operating system was to make it easier for employees to quickly locate information. Although hospital employees do not send patient information through the e-mail system, they are dependent on e-mail for conducting much of their business. Many users archive their Microsoft Office Outlook® 2007 e-mail messages but then need to go back to locate a price chart, license, or similar piece of information. It was possible to find such data, but it took a great deal of time-consuming sorting, sometimes on the part of IT administrators.

Additionally, the hospital wanted to provide an environment that would help it attract and retain new physicians and staff. In particular, the hospital considered the new operating system a way to foster a more flexible work environment for employees. “We wanted to make it easier for them to work from home,” says Wilhelm. “We felt that, with the security features in Windows Vista, we could encourage flexibility without sacrificing the privacy of patients’ medical information.”

Additionally, many of the hospital’s physicians had been requesting new technology and were eager for the hospital to upgrade to Windows Vista or replace desktop hardware with Windows Vista–ready computers. “Many of our employees, not just physicians, are technically savvy and enthusiastic about using Windows Vista, so we thought we’d better take care of the necessary testing and troubleshooting to get the new functionality in their hands as soon as possible,” says Wilhelm.

Solution

For help with its upgrade, Englewood Hospital teamed with Quality Technology Solutions (QTS), a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner located in Morris Plains, New Jersey. QTS consultants started with Microsoft Solution Accelerator for Business Desktop Deployment (BDD) 2007, a best-practice set of comprehensive guidance and tools, which they then customized to apply directly to the Englewood Hospital project. The partner broke down the project into five phases, which together form the QTS QuikDeploy service for desktop deployment.

Before, it could take a couple of hours to update each disk image and that would have to be done 10 to 30 times. Now, with [the Solution Accelerator for Business Desktop Deployment], it takes only a couple of minutes one time.  Neil Rosenberg President and Chief Executive Officer Quality Technology Solutions

First, in March 2006, was the envisioning phase, which involved working with Englewood Hospital to set high-level goals for the project. In April 2006, the hospital entered the planning phase, in which a group of hospital and partner employees broke down the goals into specific functionality requirements and determined the operating system’s configuration.

During the development phase that followed in May 2006, QTS created the master desktop image, set up the BDD tool set, and established an automated deployment method to minimize deployment time and necessary resources.

For the testing phase, QTS took advantage of the Microsoft Application Compatibility Toolkit to help identify and categorize any application compatibility issues. “The Application Compatibility Toolkit contains a list of thousands of applications and the recommended adjustments that they need to work well with Windows Vista,” says Neil Rosenberg, President and Chief Executive Officer for Quality Technology Solutions. “So it not only helps us hunt down application incompatibilities, but it also helps us fix them. That saves a lot of time and frustration.”

According to Rosenberg, one of the keys to a successful deployment lies in the preparation, particularly in compiling an accurate hardware and software inventory, which he says is made easier with the Application Compatibility Toolkit. Having an accurate inventory of applications and their potential issues makes it possible for the hospital to quickly see to the areas with the fewest compatibility issues first.

QTS also made sure that user settings and data migrated well to the new operating system by using Windows User State Migration Tool version 3.0.

The pilot phase of the Englewood Hospital deployment, which didn’t occur until October 2006 due to non-IT factors, involved 10 users from the IT department, who served as the initial test group. In November 2006, the team then upgraded the computers of 10 administrators in other departments.

QTS transferred knowledge to the Englewood Hospital IT help desk and deployment team in addition to training select users. “Using BDD to get the project’s complex infrastructure in place made it easy for the hospital to take over management and be successful,” says Rosenberg. “BDD is an extraordinarily powerful tool because it makes image maintenance so much easier. The old way involved too many images to manage—more than 40 different hardware and software images. When something takes that much work, it usually doesn’t get maintained.”

As of May 2007, Englewood Hospital has upgraded 30 of its desktop and portable computers to Windows Vista. The hospital plans to upgrade another 300 computers—about one-third of the hospital’s total—on its clinical floors by the end of August 2007. The project then will proceed by department, with the goal of upgrading hardware as part of the hospital’s refresh cycle so that all computers are running Windows Vista by March 2008.

Benefits

Englewood Hospital and Medical Center is moving toward a standardized environment on an operating system that will help facilitate enhanced manageability for IT staff, better security, and a positive, flexible user experience.

I anticipate a 20 percent drop in monthly help-desk calls after the new operating system is fully deployed. Our help-desk staff will be far more efficient, and … it will take much less time to resolve issues.  Athina Avetisian Operations and Support Manager Englewood Hospital and Medical Center

Faster, More Streamlined Deployment

Compared with previous desktop operating system upgrades, the most recent project is proving to be significantly quicker for Englewood Hospital to complete. “It was an estimated fives times faster to move a computer to Windows Vista than to previous operating system versions,” says Athina Avetisian, Operations and Support Manager for Englewood Hospital and Medical Center. “The whole process was more straightforward, more streamlined.”

Adds Rosenberg, “Having the Solution Accelerator for Business Desktop Deployment and the other Microsoft delivery tools to create one image for all systems is a huge advantage. Microsoft brought an ‘economy of scale’ to its deployment tools, making them far easier for midsize organizations to deploy and use for managing their environments. Before, it could take a couple of hours to update each disk image, and that would have to be done 10 to 30 times. Now, with BDD, it takes only a couple of minutes one time.”

Easier Client Management

Englewood Hospital anticipates that its desktop computers that run Windows Vista will maintain their deployed image for longer because users will be more restricted by Group Policy settings, Windows User Account Control, and other controls within the operating system. Fewer deviations from the standard image translates to less IT time and effort dedicated to maintenance activities, such as repairing damage caused by unauthorized downloads.

In addition, the flexibility afforded by Windows Vista means that IT staff can grant specific permissions to users for routine tasks that don’t affect performance or management, such as resetting a computer’s clock. “Windows Vista isn’t just about controlling and locking down desktop computers,” says Wilhelm. “It also addresses the issue of being too restrictive with users. Setting permissions for reasonable activities, which we couldn’t do before, will reduce the number of help-desk calls and amount of IT staff time devoted to tasks that users can handle themselves.”

Increased IT Staff Productivity

The new operating system has heightened overall productivity among the Englewood Hospital IT staff. In addition to taking less time to upgrade a computer’s operating system, IT help-desk staff members can resolve issues more quickly because they now can perform fixes remotely. Online management capabilities negate the need for one of them to physically visit the user with the problem.

“Our help desk often suffers from being short-staffed, so the remote tools and diagnostics make a big difference in helping staff members get more done more quickly while escalating fewer issues,” says Avetisian. “I anticipate a 20 percent drop in monthly help-desk calls after the new operating system is fully deployed. Our help-desk staff will be far more efficient, and once our users are fully trained it will take much less time to resolve issues.”

Enhanced Security

Our organization is so reliant on e-mail that having all e-mail messages and archives included in the Windows Vista Instant Search … makes administrators and users alike much more productive.  Gary Wilhelm Business and Financial Systems Manager Englewood Hospital and Medical Center

Englewood Hospital is making the most of the functionality in its new operating system to further protect sensitive medical information, which helps the hospital maintain compliance with the U.S. Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996. “Windows Vista definitely helps ease my worries about the security of our patient data,” says Wilhelm. “I never went so far as to use epoxy glue to close up the USB drives on the computers like other organizations I know, but it’s still a concern. We’re using Group Policy to prevent people from using USB devices on our desktops, so unauthorized people cannot copy and remove information.”

Englewood Hospital also is setting user permissions and access rights for individual computers. “We can maintain better regulatory compliance by blocking all but those individuals who are supposed to see certain data necessary to do their jobs,” says Wilhelm. “Group Policy makes it easier for our network infrastructure group to place new policies on desktop computers, and they’re doing so more often as a result.”

The hospital also is looking to use Windows BitLocker™ Drive Encryption to help safeguard information on its approximately 75 portable computers, which are used by the hospital’s home healthcare group. “Windows BitLocker appealed to us as a means of shoring up the protection of any patient data that might be on the hard disk drive of one of our portable computers,” says Wilhelm. “It’s good to know that, if a computer is lost or stolen, patient information isn’t at risk.”

Improved Efficiency Through Ease of Use

All Englewood Hospital employees can make better use of their time, thanks to the new operating system’s improved functionality, such as the ability to conduct more thorough searches. “Our organization is so reliant on e mail that having all e-mail messages and archives included in the Windows Vista Instant Search capabilities makes administrators and users alike much more productive,” says Wilhelm.

The hospital’s users also enjoy the new operating system’s “live icon” preview, which displays a thumbnail image of the actual contents of files, and Windows Flip 3D, which renders thumbnail images of the contents of open windows. “We’re all running more and more applications, so the ability to quickly see content speeds up users as they navigate through the environment,” says Wilhelm. “The easier it is to work with more applications, the faster and better our users can accomplish their tasks.”

Better Work/Life Balance for Employees

In moving to the latest operating system, the hospital has taken steps to help its work force perform regardless of location. “We want to make Englewood Hospital a place where physicians want to practice and staff members want to work,” says Wilhelm. “We can’t compete with huge, big-city hospitals in terms of salary, but we can offer a better quality of life.

“Technology is giving us the opportunity to help our people balance their personal lives with their professional lives. With Windows Vista combined with the 2007 Microsoft Office system, we’re able to closely mimic the work environment not just from home but from anywhere they happen to be when they need to share and retrieve information.”

For More Information

For more information about Microsoft products and services, call the Microsoft Sales Information Center at (800) 426-9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft Canada Information Centre at (877) 568-2495. Customers who are deaf or hard-of-hearing can reach Microsoft text telephone (TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234 in the United States or (905) 568-9641 in Canada. Outside the 50 United States and Canada, please contact your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access information using the World Wide Web, go to:
www.microsoft.com

For more information about Quality Technology Solutions products and services, call (973) 984-7600 or visit the Web site at:
www.QTSnet.com

For more information about Englewood Hospital and Medical Center, call (201) 894-3000 or visit the Web site at:
www.englewoodhospital.com

Windows Vista

Windows Vista can help your organization use information technology to gain a competitive advantage in today’s new world of work. Your people will be able to find and use information more effectively. You will be able to support your mobile work force with better access to shared data and collaboration tools. And your IT staff will have better tools and technologies to enhance corporate IT security, data protection, and more efficient deployment and management.

For more information about Windows Vista, go to:
www.microsoft.com/windowsvista

This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.

Document published June 2007