How Industry Trends are Shaping Hospital Infrastructure Requirements
Consolidation, reduced IT spending, increasing requirements for real-time patient data and the need to manage tremendous volumes of data are guiding, governing and dictating how hospitals shape IT infrastructure.
Consolidation drives need for agility
Over the past 3 – 5 years, consolidation has become more common in the healthcare industry than at any time in history. In the past, the biggest challenges were related to integrating medical staff, nursing staff, and other clinicians while working to streamline processes for efficiency.
Today, while consolidation and efficiency at the service-line level is still important, often one of the most difficult and expensive tasks organizations face is integration of disparate IT systems – and the movement and protection of critical data. While other industries have successfully utilized public cloud infrastructure for many of these tasks, healthcare has the additional burden of regulatory and privacy concerns that many other industries lack – limiting the viability of some cloud solutions.
Epic Names VMware RDS Hosted Applications a Target Platform
VMware announced their RDS hosted applications are included in the Epic 2015 Target Platform list. Epic’s Target Platform List assists healthcare organizations in selecting validated architectures and platforms for the delivery of electronic health records (EHRs).
Organizations currently using VMware and Epic can now use VMware’s software-defined data center platform and the VMware Digital Clinical Workspace to host, deliver, monitor, and manage their EHRs from the data center to the point of care, helping to ensure high-quality patient care and improve outcomes at lower costs.
RDS host or remote desktop session host is a server that hosts applications and desktop sessions for remote access.
NEW DIGITAL INFRASTRUCTURE ANNOUNCED FOR NEW ORLEANS-BASED HOSPITAL SYSTEM
Louisiana is home to a statewide healthcare system serving its residents called LCMC Health. The company is the parent corporation of Children’s Hospital, Touro Infirmary, University Medical Center (UMC) New Orleans, New Orleans East Hospital, and West Jefferson Medical Center.
UMC is the state’s largest teaching hospital that was opened in 2015 after several years and a $1.1 billion price tag. Before the hospital officially opened, they had to deploy and test a state-of-the-art IT infrastructure in a tight, three-month timeline.
In an effort to make the new infrastructure as effective as possible, UMC partnered with electronic health records (EHR) company Sapphire Health, data management company NetApp, and CMA Technology to implement Epic electronic medical records (EMRs).
UMC New Orleans Delivers Quality Healthcare Services With NetApp
Sapphire Health, CMA Technology, and NetApp build new infrastructure for New Orleans–based hospital system, speeding delivery of exceptional care to underserved communities in Louisiana
“University Medical Center [UMC] New Orleans, a public-private partnership with the State of Louisiana, was built and founded by the State and is the first of five hospitals in the LCMC Health system with Epic deployed as the EMR,” said Tanya Townsend, CIO of LCMC Health. “Sapphire Health’s understanding of our requirements, CMA Technology Solutions’ delivery of the core Epic infrastructure, and NetApp All Flash FAS enabled us to meet consolidation and integration requirements. We quickly built out two new data centers capable of delivering critical patient data to thousands of clinical users.”
LCMC Health is the parent corporation of Children’s Hospital, Touro Infirmary, UMC New Orleans, New Orleans East Hospital, and West Jefferson Medical Center. Ten years after Hurricane Katrina decimated two of Louisiana’s major teaching hospitals, the State of Louisiana and LCMC Health unveiled a new facility, University Medical Center (UMC) New Orleans, the largest teaching hospital in the state. Because of a tight launch schedule, UMC had only three months to deploy and test a state-of-the-art IT infrastructure before the hospital opened. The technology team sought to give physicians, clinicians, and radiologists rapid access to patient information through Epic electronic medical records (EMRs) and GE Centricity PACS applications using virtual desktops accessed from shared thin-client terminals.
Showcase 2016: University Medical Center New Orleans
The opening of the new 2.3 million-square-foot University Medical Center New Orleans in August 2015 helped restore clinical healthcare services to New Orleans and formed the cornerstone of a new medical corridor, all of which were lost during Hurricane Katrina.
The project, submitted by NBBJ, earned an honorable mention in the 2016 Healthcare Design Showcase.
The $754 million project includes three patient towers with 424 beds, a diagnostic and treatment building with conference and research facilities in the center of campus, and an adjoining clinic.
Delivering Modern Healthcare to the Vibrant New Orleans Community
When a natural disaster destroys Louisiana’s largest teaching hospital and trauma center, the result is devastating. But it also leaves that community with the opportunity to reimagine and rebuild a leading-edge healthcare facility. That is exactly what the state of Louisiana did in 2015 when it built University Medical Center (UMC) New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
A public-private partnership with the state of Louisiana, UMC New Orleans is operated by LCMC Health, a not-for-profit healthcare system managing five hospitals and employing more than 8,200 physicians, clinicians, and support personnel in the greater New Orleans metropolitan area. After Hurricane Katrina (August 2005) destroyed Charity Hospital, a major academic and trauma facility, the state of Louisiana decided to build its modern replacement.
Working under a highly accelerated schedule, the IT department was faced with a daunting challenge. “We had to essentially open up a billion-dollar hospital with about six months of time,” explains Austin Park, principal consultant with LCMC Health. The user experience for physicians and clinicians was of paramount importance. In addition, there were two other fundamental goals: lowering operating expenses, and developing a solution that would provide flexibility and the ability to roll out applications very quickly while maintaining always-on status.
VMware App Volumes Provides Faster Application Delivery and Unified Management
App Volumes is a portfolio of industry-leading application and user management solutions for Horizon, Citrix XenApp and XenDesktop, and RDSH virtual environments. App Volumes can help reduce IT costs by up to 70% and is a key component of JMP – the next generation of desktop and application delivery.
By leveraging VMware’s Instant Clones, App Volumes, and User Environment Management, JMP untangles the operating system, applications, and user personalization. By doing so, all the component pieces together can be reconstituted on-demand to deliver Just-in-Time desktops and apps across any infrastructure topologies – delivered to any device.
University Medical Center New Orleans officially opens in Crescent City’s BioDistrict
More than four years after officials broke ground on the new University Medical Center New Orleans, the hospital officially opened to the public on Saturday.
While some people weren’t sure when this day would come, it’s finally here. The doors to the new $1.1 billion UMC-New Orleans are now open.
It’s size alone is impressive at 2.3-million-square-feet. It’s become the anchor to the Crescent City’s medical corridor, called the BioDistrict.
