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The Information Technology Stake -
Mission Critical and More
For healthcare organizations, a reliable information
infrastructure is more than mission-critical. It is
life-critical. The IT infrastructure must be available 24X7X365,
frequently across multiple facilities at different geographic
locations.
Confidential patient data must be shared between departments
within each facility without latency. Lives depend on the
correct information reaching the caregiver.
Healthcare IT organizations are continually challenged to
support new functionalities, support compliance of evolving
regulations, and manage increasing amounts of information - all
with tight fiscal controls. Failure to protect data and the
technology may have dire consequences to patient
care, organizational reputation, and financial strength.
System Availability
System outages are inevitable. Some instances occur due to
planned shutdowns for upgrades, maintenance and others such
occurrences. Those could last for a duration of a few
minutes to hours depending on the scale and scope of the
project. Unplanned downtime occurs because of a failure. The
length of an unexpected
occurrences of this nature would vary to the extent of the
issue. Some could be for a few hours and others, such as the
failure of a server motherboard could require a considerable
longer time to remediate. System availability during a system
outage - regardless of whether it is planned or unplanned - is
unacceptable in a healthcare setting, particularly when patient
records are involved. Imagine caregivers unable to access
patient data when creating crucial treatment plans.
As such, Intersect creates healthcare systems with
fault-tolerance capabilities. In the event of a system issue, either planned or
unplanned, applications automatically "failover" to a
healthy system without loss of data availability.
The result is zero downtime, zero data loss and continuous
availability in the face of server hardware failures for the
entire system.
System Performance
Even if system uptime exceeds 99.9%, if caregivers get show
response to transactions critical to their workflow, then
applications might as well be down. The network infrastructure
must conform to that requirement and be capable of scaling up to
meet new demands. In short, it must be a "medical-grade" network
that is a resistant, protected, interactive, and responsive
architecture throughout the continuum of care. It must meet the
needs of all stakeholders including physicians, visiting
physicians, nurses, technicians, administrators patients and
their families and guests. Intersect can design and deploy a
solution that fulfills those requirements.
Compliance
New HIPAA requirements as part of the HITECH act further
increase the importance of assuring that patient information is
safe and secured. The conversion to electronic medical records
(EMR) further complicates the issue. And, yet additional
complexities result from the need to make information available
as part of electronic discovery. Intersect can provide your
organization with a "best practices" resolution to these
requirements.
Data Protection
and Disaster Recovery
Protecting your data and confidential patient information from internal and external threats should
have the highest priority. Contingency plans to deal with
disasters - natural or otherwise are essential. Solutions to
these issues begin with well-developed plans, sound policies and
leading-edge products and services. Intersect partners with
industry leaders to offer best practices solutions that assure your information is
well-secured.
The Bottom Line
Intersect has the unique combination of proven expertise and
experience to create a successful solution for your organization.
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