Most people juggle multiple email and other online accounts, and with them dozens of passwords. Imagine, then, a busy physician who has to access multiple secure clinical systems at multiple facilities.
At North Bend Medical Center, the systems’ limited IT staff frequently had to respond to 30 to 50 password reset requests per day and other issues related to supporting desktop computer systems. “We had a system that had grown organically in bits and pieces,” says North Bend CTO Doug McLeod. “We just did whatever it took to get the provider working, without thinking if we could ever replicate it again.”
Enter virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI). Using VDI, zero client hardware, and a single sign-on solution allowing each clinician’s desktop to follow them across multiple computers with the swipe of a card, the medical center has eliminated time-consuming log ons and password resets and reduced IT support costs as well.
VDI and single sign-on have improved efficiency at North Bend Medical Center and helped reduce IT support requirements.
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Most people juggle multiple email and other online accounts, and with them dozens of passwords. Imagine, then, a busy physician who has to access multiple secure clinical systems at multiple facilities.
At North Bend Medical Center, the systems’ limited IT staff frequently had to respond to 30 to 50 password reset requests per day and other issues related to supporting desktop computer systems. “We had a system that had grown organically in bits and pieces,” says North Bend CTO Doug McLeod. “We just did whatever it took to get the provider working, without thinking if we could ever replicate it again.”
Enter virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI). Using VDI, zero client hardware, and a single sign-on solution allowing each clinician’s desktop to follow them across multiple computers with the swipe of a card, the medical center has eliminated time-consuming log ons and password resets and reduced IT support costs as well.
Wasted Time Prompts Move To Virtual Computing
North Bend transitioned from a traditional PC to a VDI environment in 2014 as part of an effort to simplify desktop management while providing physicians and clinical staff with a more consistent and faster computer experience, says Joshua Rabe, systems architect at North Bend.
“We have a small IT team that is responsible for all five locations,” Rabe says. “We determined it would be more cost-effective to virtualize everything using our existing hardware, and then switch to zero clients. Those would be less expensive, use less energy, and be less prone to breakdowns. We’d also be able to centrally manage everything from our IT location in Coos Bay, OR.”
The IT department gained support from administrators by focusing on how virtualization would make life easier for the IT staff and North Bend’s 65 physicians. Instead of logging in to desktop systems every time they entered a patient room, the desktop could follow the clinician.
“We watched the providers going about their day, and we tracked how much time they spent logging in to applications and getting on the desktop,” Rabe says. “We determined we could save each provider 30 minutes to an hour per day, depending on their workflow. That was the big driving factor.”
North Bend virtualized access to its Allscripts EMR and other clinical systems using VMware View, combined with a single signon solution from Imprivata. Rabe’s team still needed a management layer to help the small IT staff centrally support and provision the new environment across five locations. After evaluating several solutions, North Bend selected the Unidesk virtual desktop management platform, as it enabled them to make the VDI transition with minimal resources.
The Unidesk solution fit our needs as far as centralized management,” Rabe says. “We wanted to have nontechnical people at the locations be able to manage the system and build desktops so we could offload some of those tasks during the upgrade. Anything we could push off to other staff was helpful, and Unidesk enabled us to do that without giving away too much control or giving those staff members access that could allow them to damage a system.”
North Bend is running VMware View on HP servers. The medical center also deployed a badge-based touch-and-go log-in system from Imprivata. “It allows us to capture the sign-in screens and pass through the authentication to every piece of software, so they have single sign-on even if that is not natively supported in the individual applications themselves,” Rabe says.
Consistent Desktop Experience A Plus For Clinicians
North Bend set up a center with five zero clients and the Imprivata badges and card readers. “We walked everyone through how they would log on and log out,” Rabe says. “We also had Imprivata learn their credentials during that process, so when we cut over to the live system all of that information was already loaded.”
By switching from PCs to Samsung NX-N2-T zero clients, Rabe says the hardware is easier to support because there are fewer points of failure on the devices and improved IT efficiency in the process. Being able to centrally patch and update Windows, Allscripts EMR, and many other clinical applications on-demand and independent of each other also saved the IT organization time that could be better spent improving service for providers and staff.
Clinicians can access patient data anywhere at any time, even from personal devices via a secure VMware View connection. “Instead of coming in through a VPN, the provider can now get their full desktop exactly as it was when they left work,” Rabe says. “They can go home and chart and have all the same features and functionality they would in the office.”
Virtualization Means Fewer Trouble Tickets For IT
For the IT staff, the switch to virtualization has reduced the number of trouble tickets they have to deal with. “We have more time to allocate to projects instead of responding to break-fix issues,” Rabe says. “We don’t have password resets. Before, we had one staff member who spent the entire day going out and fixing desktop problems. Now if there is a problem we use Unidesk to get the system back up in 10 minutes. We essentially gained a technician in that sense.”
Physicians on average have saved anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour because they no longer have to log on and off of different desktop systems. Their personal desktops are also backed up regularly, which was not the case prior to VDI.
“When I first got here, a third of the day was spent changing passwords, a third on moving people from one desk to another and a third on people printing to the wrong printer or tray,” McLeod says. “Now with VDI, one person spends less than one hour a day on all of those issues combined. It has made a huge impact on when the physicians get out the door. They used to stay past 6:30 every night; now that rarely happens. We have saved them an hour a day, and that adds up. It also saved us the cost of all that frustration. People are smiling more, and that results in a better interaction with patients.”
Rabe says the biggest challenge was actually getting the IT staff to change the way they approached fixing problems for the end users. “We don’t want anybody spending more than 10 minutes on something,” Rabe says. “If they are, then something is wrong.”
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The process of deploying the new zero clients and virtual desktops clearly illustrated the benefits of VDI. The IT team was able to quickly deploy hundreds of new desktops with no disruption for the staff. “We took people with little to no IT experience, and they had 300 desktops built in a day,” Rabe says. “With Unidesk and virtualization it was not a big issue.”
The team is also able to keep better track of patching and software updates because of the reporting tools available in the systems. “With our EMR, once or twice a year there is an upgrade that previously required a physical installation on the desktop,” Rabe says. “Now we can do that with just a few people. With the VDI management platform, we update an app layer, and when we’re ready we push it out. We can have 400 desktops done in an hour.”
When the medical center implements new software, the IT staff no longer has to dedicate technicians to install the program on individual computers, a task that often took a week or more. “Now it’s just a footnote at the end of the project plan,” Rabe says. “We update the application layers in the management tool, and we can roll it out immediately.”
The management platform has also made the IT department’s job easier. “What it allows me to do is step back and not worry about it,” Rabe says. “We enabled the tier-one and tier-two staff to manage complex applications and desktops. Now the administrators have more time to dedicate to new projects and taking care of bigger things.”
Most people juggle multiple email and other online accounts, and with them dozens of passwords. Imagine, then, a busy physician who has to access multiple secure clinical systems at multiple facilities.
The process of deploying the new zero clients and virtual desktops clearly illustrated the benefits of VDI. The IT team was able to quickly deploy hundreds of new desktops with no disruption for the staff. “We took people with little to no IT experience, and they had 300 desktops built in a day,” Rabe says. “With Unidesk and virtualization it was not a big issue.”
