Dramatically Reducing IT Help Desk Calls Through PC Preventative Care & Repair
| Industry: |
Healthcare |
 |
| Number of PCs: |
600 |
| IT Challenge: |
Reducing configuration drift and help desk calls |
| Solution: |
Persystent Suite |
Q&A with Andy Chileski, Corporate Director, Management Information Systems:
Could you summarize your IT infrastructure at Berger Health System?
Our IT organization is set up primarily as an HP server-Dell PC-Windows OS shop. We have approximately 600 PCs (most of which are running on Windows XP), 100 servers and 200 printers to manage. We widely deploy mobile devices, including tablets and laptops. We employ VoIP. And we rely on Cisco wireless technology to stay up and running. For the management of medical records and health information and workstation optimization, we’re using systems like Meditech, QS and iBEX.
What’s your IT organization like?
We have 14 people in our IT organization. A uniquely talented and highly trained group of individuals, they include: application specialists, financial analysts, experts in digital radiology administration, and so forth. We’re responsible for managing a range of mission critical hospital-related and patient-related information. That, on top of overseeing the network, servers, PCs, mobile devices, phone system and more.
Was there a compelling event that drove you to try Persystent Suite?
Absolutely. Two things mainly. First, we needed to figure out how to reduce our help desk calls. We were getting about 500 help desk tickets a month, which often required the attention of our entire IT staff. It was just getting to be too much to ask of them and out of control from my perspective. It felt like we were putting out fires on a daily basis and diverting our attention from more strategic initiatives. It became clear that the majority of the calls were application-based, “user error” related issues, so we set out to tackle the problem. Furthermore, we were looking for additional measures of meeting HIPAA standards. By better protecting our machines, we could better safeguard the storage, access and exchange of patient records and healthcare information.
How is Persystent Suite helping you achieve your goals?
Persystent Suite is helping us both prevent and repair PC issues without the need for deskside visits, which is extremely valuable to us. We’re working in an environment where our applications – such as PAX, a digital imaging software, and Galactica for electronic health records – require very specific user interface settings. However, with multiple end users sharing computers, the baseline configuration on the machine is going to be affected – either intentionally or by mistake. In the industry, they call this “configuration drift.” With Persystent Suite, we can ensure that all machines are effectively reset to their original configuration each time they’re rebooted. This improves performance, helps us stay in compliance, and is generally just good PC maintenance.
Is there anything else you like about Persystent Suite?
Yes, we rely on it for imaging. It’s great for that…really streamlines the process. We usually buy 100 machines at a time and try to recycle a new machine every four years. So for us, an automated imaging process is extremely valuable. Like so many IT organizations in the healthcare sector, we’ve got many complex, high-profile initiatives and mandates under way. Ours include replacing part of Meditech with a GE Centricity application…implementing a backup data center using VMware…and setting up a centralized physician order entry system. So, as you can imagine, anything we can do to reduce help desk calls and speed up the imaging process is a big help to us. Persystent Suite is helping us lighten the load when we need as much relief as we can get.
About Berger Health System
Founded in the 1930s, Berger Health System is a 94-bed, community-based nonprofit facility on a mission to be "The Best Community Hospital and Healthcare System in the State of Ohio." With 150 doctors on hand and a 300-member medical staff, Berger Health System serves approximately 50,000 patients annually through its central hospital based in Circleville, Ohio and by way of various diagnostic centers located countywide.
About Persystent Software
Founded in 2002, Persystent Software has been instrumental to organizations in government, healthcare and education sectors with limited resources to support a high ratio of employees to IT staff and 24/7 business uptime. Persystent Software solutions ensure that end-user desktop and laptop computers are always available and fully functional – whether in the office or on the road. Persystent Software has developed the world’s fastest automated PC recovery product that restores application and operating system (O/S) files that are corrupted, changed or missing with just a simple reboot of the computer.
For more information on Persystent Software and its solutions, visit: www.persystent.com.