Being able to work securely anywhere, anytime and with any device is a reality for healthcare employees at Haaglanden Medical Center (HMC). With a full VMware infrastructure has made the move to a Mobile First integration easier for HMC while also complying with the Digital Patient Records Access Security Code of Conduct.
Haaglanden Medisch Centrum (HMC) in the Hague region is one of the 27 top clinical hospitals in the Netherlands. HMC offers this clinical care from three locations: HMC Antoniushove in Leidschendam, HMC Bronovo in the Wassenaar and Scheveningen region, and HMC Westeinde in The Hague. Each location has its own specializations and collectively it employs over 5,000 healthcare professionals. They use a central IT department. This department led by Edwin Mentink, HMC ICT Manager, supports and facilitates the three locations and is responsible for IT innovations so that healthcare professionals can provide the best care to patients.
‘Anytime, Anywhere, Any device’
A few years ago, HMC’s IT environment was set up differently than it is today. Edwin Mentink explains: “6 years ago when I started at HMC, we drew up a roadmap with the team. In a number of phases, we wanted to establish a completely new infrastructure. In doing so, we strategically chose technology from VMware. This was one of the most important decisions. Because with the size of our top clinical teaching hospital with three locations, 5,000 employees and all in-house technology coming from a merger, we are a relatively small team ICT-wise. This is why at the time we chose one particular technology that would become the carrier for all our infrastructures. On the other hand, we wanted a proven and solid platform in which we already have a lot of experience, so that we could deliver results with sufficient quality in the short term. The goal of the roadmap was first to create a solid foundation on which we could build further.” The choice fell first on VMware technology with VDI environment and later VMware Workspace ONE. With this, Edwin’s team provides the entire hospital staff to be able to work “Anytime, Anywhere and with Any device.”
Edwin Mentink, ICT Manager at HMC
More and more SaaS applications and mobile devices
With the solid foundation of a VDI environment, it became easier for HMC to take the next step in their roadmap, which was to add the new Mobile First policy. This step has now been successfully completed. “The need to support mobile devices with healthcare applications was getting closer and closer for us,” Edwin continued. “We see more and different types of portable devices coming into our hospital. In addition, vendors are increasingly developing software for hospitals on those mobile solutions. One example is Chipsoft Mobile Hix 6.3. Given the privacy-sensitive information, you want to be able to offer this application guaranteed to be secure and fully managed. Moreover, it is a well-known fact within healthcare that we have to do more and more with fewer people. Healthcare personnel are under pressure. If we can help to reduce this pressure with the help of technology, then as a hospital you are doing the right thing.”
Because of the integration between existing server-based applications and mobile devices and a (legal) need to take adequate security measures, HMC also wanted to fully manage the mobile devices. This way it will be possible to centrally offer the healthcare applications quickly, easily and above all safely to all healthcare employees via their (own or HMC) tablet or phone; To fulfill this desire, HMC worked with VMware to research the capabilities of VMware Workspace ONE, formerly AirWatch. This Mobile Device Management platform proved to be the right extension to HMC’s infrastructure. The team was surprised by the functionalities of this solution and started looking for a party with expertise in Mobile Device Management (MDM). They found these at Fondo | PQR.
Secure mobile access to the Electronic Patient Record
HMC reaped the benefits of implementing three unique opportunities within one project. The EUC team has now completed the VMware Workspace ONE implementation project, including the required Two-Factor-Authentication. In doing so, HMC complies with the guidelines set forth within the Digital Patient Records Access Security Code of Conduct, established by the Dutch Association of Hospitals (NVZ). Subsequently, they also successfully managed the Chipsoft Mobile Hix 6.3 application. HMC is the second hospital in the Netherlands to make this Mobile Hix 6.3 application available to healthcare providers.
Kees van Duijn, Product Owner and Team Leader of the EUC team at HMC, complements Edwin: “We now have a complete platform that supports our service delivery to the organization. We are also one of the first hospitals in the Netherlands to offer our healthcare staff the convenience of accessing the Electronic Patient Record via the Hix 6.3 mobile application securely and remotely, which may be at home or other (healthcare) location, via their cell phone or tablet. Besides convenience, such as when a physician is paged and quickly looks into patient data, there is also time savings. He or she can help immediately and does not have to walk to a workstation first.”
The cooperation with Fondo | PQR has been good. Kees enthuses, “The help of the specialists from Fondo | PQR, their knowledge and experience, has brought us to where we are today. During the project, they shared forward-thinking capabilities with us that allowed us to think further ahead than we did at the time. As a result, we were able to take more steps right away and got to where we are today faster and farther than we had thought in advance.”
Multidisciplinair team
A multidisciplinary team worked hard to develop the Workspace ONE platform, the mobile application Hix 6.3 and integrate the necessary Two-Factor-Authentication facilities within existing operations. Jordy van Lierop, Infrastructure Engineer on Kees’ team, was involved in the project along with his immediate colleague Oscar Sick and EUC specialists from Fondo | PQR. “I enjoy learning about new tools and was immediately excited to do this assignment. The implementation was a nice challenge and not only on a technical level. The adoption of the new way of working by mandating the Two-Factor-Authentication method and bringing mobile devices under management had its implementation and acceptance challenges. For our team, this has been an important learning moment.”
The rollout of the facility unhappily coincided with the implementation of the latest release of the hospital information system. The EUC team offered a warm hand to all users by taking extra time to go to people to answer all questions. “In the end, the innovation effort was successfully completed with many learning points,” concludes Edwin. “Because we implemented many things at the same time, it became a big project. So my advice is to first get the MDM platform well established and well managed. You quickly get tempted to implement applications along and roll them out across the organization because it’s so easy.”
Best practice
Learning something new as an IT team takes a lot of time. The necessary falling and getting up again causes delays. This is why Edwin uses external IT specialists, among other things to keep daily operations going and free up its own people. He also brings in additional knowledge and experience that helps him and his team move forward and transfer the knowledge to his team. Edwin concludes by explaining his philosophy. “We always start from ón our situation. With a very limited team, we have to realize many projects at the same time in addition to the necessary maintenance. All at the same time while the store must remain open. When we want to incorporate new techniques, we always bring in external expertise. We very deliberately asked Fondo | PQR to come. We told them what we wanted to achieve based on our Enterprise environment and infrastructure. I think you should especially listen to partners with a proven track-record. Especially when your own organization has no experience yet. We embraced the experience that Fondo | PQR brings and they worked with us to successfully deploy best-practices at HMC.”
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