Access Community Health Network reduces costs with 11-month migration to Azure

Nonprofit healthcare provider Access Community Health Network (ACCESS) is revolutionizing its operational environment with Microsoft Azure, reducing costs and advancing better health outcomes for underserved communities in Chicago, Illinois. The organization migrated its on-premises infrastructure to Azure in just 11 months, saving over $300,000 in hardware and software licensing costs alone. ACCESS’s ambitious move is empowering the organization to quickly adapt to evolving needs and laying a foundation for future growth in providing health services to those who need it most.

Pivoting away from increasing on-premises hardware and software costs

ACCESS operates 35 health centers in the Chicago area and is the sixth-largest network of federally qualified health centers in the United States. The organization offers comprehensive health services, including behavioral healthcare, and addresses common barriers, such as transportation and access to healthy foods that enrich the overall health of traditionally underserved communities. “Wherever there’s a need, wherever there is an underserved population, that’s where ACCESS wants to be,” says Mike Baran, Chief Information Officer at ACCESS.

Like many nonprofit organizations, ACCESS makes every dollar count, and Baran recognized that pivoting to a more cost-effective IT infrastructure would help ACCESS advance its core mission. The organization had to spend about $400,000 to update on-premises servers every three to five years. Some of the organization’s software licensing costs had tripled, and expanding its capacity to support business growth demanded costly additional hardware purchases and installation. 

As ACCESS considered cloud-based solutions, Azure stood out. “Azure’s alignment with the Microsoft tools we were currently using and my staff’s familiarity with the ecosystem was really valuable,” says Baran. 

Saving over $300,000 in software license costs with an 11-month migration

ACCESS migrated its existing on-premises infrastructure to Azure in just 11 months with Azure Migrate and the Azure Accelerate offering, which provides expert guidance, funding support, and hands-on assistance to accelerate migration. At the heart of ACCESS’s digital transformation was migrating its electronic medical record (EMR) system with more than 300 servers to Azure, a feat only a few healthcare organizations have completed. “We felt like trailblazers because there wasn’t a playbook to follow, and that’s where Microsoft was tremendously beneficial,” says Baran. “With Azure Accelerate and Azure Migrate, along with the expertise of Microsoft partner AHEAD, we were able to get started in a matter of months instead of a year or more.”

The organization uses Azure Virtual Machines to add new servers or storage in minutes instead of months, increasing agility and empowering ACCESS employees to quickly develop new business services. This move also meant that ACCESS didn’t need a third-party software license, saving the organization over $300,000.

The migration improved ACCESS’s overall security posture, a high priority for an organization that handles sensitive patient information. “We took the expertise we had in Microsoft Security solutions and extended those into Azure, giving us a new level of security with heightened visibility,” says Baran.

Improving system performance by 15% and expecting to save $150,000 annually

With its cloud-based infrastructure in place, ACCESS has positioned itself for future growth and opportunities to enrich the well-being of its traditionally underserved patients. The organization has seen a 15% improvement in system performance, and its biannual EMR upgrades are completed in three hours instead of five, giving employees more time to focus and improve on the patient experience.

ACCESS is reconfiguring its disaster recovery plans and anticipates savings of $150,000 annually while enhancing recovery operations. “With Azure, we have a fully capable disaster recovery environment that can run our entire health system at a lower cost per year, which is a major accomplishment,” says Baran. 

Enriching lives through digital transformation

ACCESS is excited about its ability to quickly innovate new business solutions and empower employees to focus on what matters most: serving those in need. The organization’s close collaboration with and support from Microsoft highlights how nonprofits can accelerate their modernization journey to advance the public good.

“Microsoft is invested in helping nonprofit healthcare organizations succeed,” says Baran. “They were there for us every step of the way, sincere in their commitment to what we do for traditionally underserved communities.” 

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