Woodward Regional Hospital

Profile

Woodward Regional Hospital (WRH) is an 87-bed acute care hospital providing healthcare to the tri-state area (Oklahoma, Texas, and Kansas). With over 300 employees, Woodward Regional Hospital (WRH) services a population of almost 35,000 people. Woodward Regional Hospital is the only area hospital accredited by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO).

IT Challenge

Woodward Regional Hospital was looking for a cost-effective way to improve the IT organization. The IT staff had a difficult time providing timely problem resolution because they had limited staff and no remote capabilities. The staff of two people had to go to each computer to fix issues, wasting valuable time traveling from location to location. Also, WRH had no method of tracking or managing new problems. Technicians got stopped in the halls to work on issues or were expected to remember to come back and help the client. This process was not allowing the IT staff to be efficient, effective, or timely. What could they do, with a limited budget, to enhance and improve the service they provided?

Solution

In March of 2005, WRH turned to the Desktop Management Suite™ (DMS) to help them with their problems. DMS is the comprehensive solution that encompasses the full spectrum of systems management solutions. DMS includes the following features:

Detailed asset inventory (hardware, software)
Security auditing ( patch vulnerabilities, license compliance)
Patch management workflow: Verify, vulnerability discovery, approval process, auto-deployment
Software delivery
Remote control (Web-based, LAN), remote diagnostic tools
Help desk, knowledge base

Value

Originally, WRH was simply looking for a set of remote tools and a way to track help desk tickets. But while evaluating DMS, they realized that they could improve the organization so much more. Not only did DMS give them the ability to manage remote machines, and report on help desk requests, it allowed them to also start managing their assets. "Before DMS, we could not honestly say how many computers we had on our network," said Larry Churchill, Information Services Director. "It was always our best guess. Now WRH knows the number of computers, the software installed on those machines, and the tickets associated with each machine. Since implementing DMS, the service level we provide to our clients has increased tremendously. And we have been able to make these improvements with a staff of two. Most hospitals of our size are operating with at least a staff of three."

These results were realized in a matter of days, with no upfront costs. Whether it’s for remote control, the integrated help desk, or the asset management functions, DMS continues to be the solution to all of Woodward Regional Hospital’s IT support needs.