Laying a foundation for better care
Optimizing your healthcare IT infrastructure for improved performance and lower costs
Alamance Regional Medical Center, which serves central North Carolina, saved more than $1.5 million in application management costs over a three-year period using one of Microsoft's many infrastructure optimization (IO) offerings. Imagine what your organization could do with an extra $1.5 million. I'm sure the wish list is long-perhaps your physicians have their eyes on an open MRI machine or a new diagnostic or therapeutic device, or perhaps you'd like to add staff or upgrade your healing environments.
Although IO may not be as exciting as a new medical breakthrough, it can have similar dramatic effects on the safety and quality of care. Technology facilitates the delivery of information, and we all know that information is at the heart of healthcare. With the number of applications running in critical areas like emergency departments and operating rooms, for example, it's vital that information technology (IT) systems be stable so doctors can access the information they need, when and where they need it, to make critical clinical decisions.
As the primary information storage and dissemination vehicle in healthcare today, technology also plays a key role in protecting sensitive data and complying with industry regulations for data handling, something that is always at the top of the priority list for healthcare organizations.
By taking care of your IT system-making sure it's running as effectively and efficiently as it can-you're taking care of the backbone of your business and patient care delivery. And the money you save in IT costs can be put to use providing care and keeping up with the demands and opportunities your patients and this industry continually present.
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IT expenses include the cost of energy, driving a movement to greener IT
Increased awareness around the environmental impact of IT and the associated energy costs is further driving the need to ensure optimal functioning of your infrastructure. The U.S. Department of Energy has said that the data center is the fastest-growing energy user in the United States today, consuming 61 billion kilowatt hours of power and requiring a projected 10 to 15 additional power plants by 2011 just to keep up. According to Gartner Research, energy costs could soon account for more than 50 percent of the total IT budget for a typical data center.
Statistics like these provide even more incentive to make sure your IT system is as efficient as it can be.
Microsoft IO solutions get results
With the new generation of tools and technologies, it is faster and easier than ever to optimize your IT infrastructure and see immediate savings. Microsoft's core IO solutions are helping healthcare enterprises reduce IT costs, achieve greener IT, improve service levels, and increase the agility of their organizations. These solutions include integrated technologies, processes, and best practices that reduce system complexity and simplify deployment and management of infrastructure technologies while helping protect patient information across the healthcare ecosystem.
Server consolidation and desktop optimization are two examples of Microsoft IO solutions in action.
Server consolidation lowers costs, including energy outlays
When it comes to optimizing IT and cutting costs-including energy costs-in a data center, the low-hanging fruit is often server consolidation. Typically, server workloads consume only 5 percent of the server's total physical capacity, wasting hardware, space, and electricity-not to mention the time and money required to manage server sprawl. This waste comes about because issues of application compatibility have limited the number of operating systems and applications that can run on one server.
Enter Windows Server 2008, which includes the Hyper-V (hypervisor) operating system feature. This solution makes it possible to run multiple operating systems and applications on a single physical machine. Essentially, it does this by compartmentalizing a physical server workload into a virtual server-a virtual machine (VM) file to be exact-that is insulated and runs in isolation from other workloads on the server, thereby practically eliminating conflicts. This dramatically improves utilization of server capacity. The result? Fewer servers are required and less space is needed, which translates into reduced cooling needs and fewer kilowatt hours of power consumption-all of which saves money and decreases the environmental footprint.
Consider the savings achieved at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC) in New Hampshire, where they implemented Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V along with Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager to simplify server management. DHMC expects to create upwards of 36 virtual guests per host server using Hyper-V and will soon convert 125 servers to virtual machines to consolidate server workloads. "We are saving up to $3,700 per guest server through lower hardware and software costs," says Robert McShinsky, senior systems administrator for DHMC. "That doesn't include electrical and cooling savings and the cost avoidance of expanding our data center." With 36 guests per host, that's a savings of $133,200 per server.
Virtual servers translate into better availability and disaster recovery
In addition to improved use of your server resources, converting physical servers to VM files that can be centrally stored and managed allows for dynamic deployment based on load and available resources. That means IT can perform maintenance without disrupting service. And if workloads go down, they can be quickly and automatically migrated to an online server and users will be none the wiser. In addition, virtualization allows for easy data backup and redundant infrastructure and replication, reducing the impact of a disaster on your organization.
Desktop optimization contains costs, improves service levels, and increases agility
Desktop optimization is another crucial step on the IO path. PCs, laptops, and mobile devices are now primary tools for many workflows in healthcare. This is encouraging progress, but also presents new challenges for IT. How do you manage applications, policies, desktop images, and, most important, the security of patient data with the multitude of devices being brought into your hospital or clinic? Furthermore, how do you do all this in the most efficient manner, so that the total cost of ownership for all these devices and software remains low, IT service levels remain high, and users have access to the information and processes they need when and where they need them?
Microsoft's desktop optimization strategy helps healthcare organizations answer these questions. It is built on the following five best practices:
| • | Standardize desktop strategy and minimize images. |
| • | Implement comprehensive security and compliance tools. |
| • | Automate software distribution. |
| • | Centrally manage PC configurations and settings. |
| • | Virtualize applications and deliver as streaming on-demand services. |
To help healthcare enterprises implement these five best practices, Microsoft offers a comprehensive set of solutions for desktop optimization: Microsoft Windows Vista Enterprise, Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack, Microsoft System Center, Microsoft Office 2007, and Microsoft Forefront Client Security.
Alone or in combination, the various elements of a desktop optimization strategy benefit healthcare providers in several ways. Among them:
| • | Easy Access to Information. Features in Windows Vista, Microsoft Office 2007, and Office SharePoint Server simplify the capture, movement, and use of important information, enhancing caregivers' workflow and making it faster and easier for them to find the information they need for improved patient care.
This is one of the many reasons the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) is upgrading to Windows Vista. "The integrated search functionality will help users find and use locally stored documents that they previously couldn't locate," says Ryan Harvey, project manager of desktop design for UPMC. "With the Live Icons and thumbnail previews, our users will enjoy easier access to the right documents, which will save them time and help them focus on serving patients."
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| • | Simplified Software Management. Windows Vista Enterprise, Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack, and Microsoft System Center make it easy for central IT staffs to deploy and manage the large number of software applications that their users need to be productive, while reducing Help Desk calls and the need for IT staff to physically go to a user's PC to install updates and patches.
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| • | Strengthened Security and Regulatory Compliance. To address the need for high levels of data security and compliance with regulations such as HIPAA, Windows Vista Enterprise has numerous security enhancements, including BitLocker Drive Encryption and Windows Security Center. Data security is also strengthened through features in Microsoft Forefront Client Security, Microsoft Office 2007, and Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack.
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| • | Centrally Managed PC Settings. Centralized management of desktops can lead to greater stability, faster problem resolution, and fewer issues with software deployments-all valuable to highly decentralized provider organizations whose mobile employees often require immediate access to information systems. Centrally managed PC settings also mean that policies on authentication, application availability, and data access are consistent between hospitals, clinics, offices, and mobile devices.
The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center will use the Group Policy tools of Windows Vista to keep sensitive information only on UPMC-approved hardware. "We will have more granular control over USB keys, MP3 players, monitors, and so on, so we can make sure that critical information doesn't get pulled from one of our computers," says Harvey.
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Desktop optimization helps Community Medical Centers reduce application conflicts and increase caregiver productivity
Like UPMC, Community Medical Centers, which operates three acute-care hospitals and several long-term care and outpatient centers in California's San Joaquin Valley, is reaping significant benefits from desktop optimization. With more than 350 computer applications to maintain, the organization was encountering a growing number of application conflicts. To address this issue, Community Medical Centers deployed Microsoft SoftGrid Application Virtualization 4.2, a component of the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack for Software Assurance, to its 3,500 workstations and uses the SoftGrid Sequencer wizard to package many of its applications for Windows as virtual services that are streamed on demand to workstations.
For those applications, conflicts have been practically eliminated and Community Medical Centers' IT department can now deliver new applications to users faster and with less downtime. "By reducing application conflicts, user downtime for SoftGrid-deployed applications has reduced by about 70 percent and, as a result, our healthcare providers get information faster to care for patients more effectively," says Jinyong Kim, manager of network services for Community Medical Centers.
And because applications are streamed from the server, clinicians, administrators, and other users can get their applications from any computer on which the SoftGrid client is installed. "Certain applications will now follow customers, so if they have to work at a different computer, they'll still have the ability to use the specialized software that they need to care for their patients," says Allison Wells, manager of client services for Community Medical Centers.
Community Medical Centers estimates that quicker access to applications and fewer application conflicts have helped increase user productivity by 20 percent.
More and more healthcare organizations are realizing that optimizing their IT infrastructure reaps dramatic results: cost savings that make more funds available for their primary mission of patient care and time savings that result in more productive and effective IT and healthcare professionals.
They're also realizing that in an industry where the information housed and delivered by IT is crucial to patient care, it's a strategic imperative to make sure IT systems work how and when they're supposed to.
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 | Dr. Bill Crounse, M.D.
Dr. Bill Crounse, M.D., is senior director, worldwide health for Microsoft Corporation. Dr. Crounse is responsible for working with industry partners and healthcare organizations to help them benefit from using Microsoft technologies and solutions. Prior to joining Microsoft, Dr. Crounse was vice president and chief medical information officer for Overlake Hospital Medical Center and the Overlake Venture Center in Bellevue, Wash. Also, read Dr. Crounse's Healthcare Web log to get more insights into the latest technologies and trends in the healthcare industry. |
