Reducing costs, eliminating server complexity and aligning IT to business goals.
Done.
El Camino Hospital has laid the foundation for an advanced, real-time infrastructure based on transformational expertise and technology from Unisys.
Breakthrough: The Strategy Infrastructure Connection
To achieve its mission as the “smart hospital of the Silicon Valley,” El Camino Hospital needed to move toward a real-time infrastructure. Streamlining its complex server environment was the first step.
Secure Business Operation
A full-service hospital.
Innovation Metrics
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Cost: $2.4 million savings in 24 months
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Performance: Improved response times, system utilization and application availability
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Scalability: Foundation established for real-time infrastructure
Business Challenge
Server complexity and business continuity
It’s the mission of El Camino Hospital, an independent community hospital located in Mountain View, California, near San Francisco, to be the “smart hospital of the Silicon Valley.” Technology has always been crucial to that mission, helping El Camino Hospital ensure patient safety, improve service delivery and control operating costs. For instance, El Camino Hospital was the first hospital in the world to implement a computerized order entry system to reduce prescribing and transcription errors.
But complexity had crept into El Camino Hospital’s server environment. The hospital had 120 2- and 4-processor Windows-based servers and nine UNIX based servers running everything from highly specialized patient care applications to enterprise applications. Mark Zielazinski, El Camino Hospital’s chief information officer, explains: “Our infrastructure was fractured with applications scattered over many servers. It made creating an information management strategy a challenge. From day one, I knew we needed to consolidate our infrastructure.”
But El Camino Hospital needed more than hardware. It also sought a highly experienced partner with deep skills and knowledge, a proven approach to consolidation and the capabilities to create a roadmap for a next-generation, real-time infrastructure. Specifically, El Camino Hospital needed to ensure that it had ample computing power today and real-time adaptability for shifting business needs tomorrow.
“We look for partners who are leaders in their industries — strong players who offer more than a point solution and who will be around for a long time,” said Zielazinski.
Solution
A streamlined infrastructure and scalable servers from an experienced partner
El Camino Hospital, and its hosting partner Eclipsys, chose Unisys for its consolidation experience and long-term vision for an optimized infrastructure. Zielazinski recalls, “Unisys had the greatest five-year return on investment (ROI), quickest install, fastest pay back and gave us even greater flexibility in terms of managing and consolidating our infrastructure.”
Unisys technology experts worked closely with the El Camino Hospital and Eclipsys team to complete a readiness assessment and to create a blueprint consisting of detailed models of current infrastructure that showed how key processes, applications and servers are linked. The next step was to complete a user-impact analysis to determine which mission-critical applications to consolidate first. Then, in partnership with Eclipsys, the Unisys team used the models to develop detailed migration and consolidation plans. The outcome was improved reliability, scalability and performance in the near-term, and a foundation for a highly agile and intelligent infrastructure over the long-term.
With the detailed plan in place, the project team deployed two Unisys ES7000 servers running enterprise-scale Windows. ES7000 servers can scale up to 32 processors, delivering proven performance and reliability, with a wealth of options to support consolidation of mixed workloads. Joe Wagner, El Camino Hospital’s chief technology officer and an Eclipsys employee, explains, “We were extremely comfortable with how the platform was designed. We felt it was scalable to our needs over the long-term.”
Results
Reduced costs and optimized server performance
El Camino Hospital has enjoyed a host of business benefits, including:
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An estimated $2.4 million in cost savings over 24 months
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30 applications, including PeopleSoft Financial Management and Human Capital Management, which had been running on scores of servers, were migrated to the new environment, eliminating platforms and operating systems, and IT reducing complexity
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Improved performance, greater system utilization, reliability and application availability
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Enhanced security, improved business continuity and disaster recovery capabilities
Plus, El Camino Hospital’s IT platform is ready for the future, with a solid foundation in place for an advanced, intelligent infrastructure that will provide the ability to dynamically respond to real-time business demands. System utilization has been greatly improved, too. According to Wagner, “We were only at 10 to 15% utilization on many of our platforms. Now that we have consolidated, utilization is much, much higher.”
The overall server environment is now more efficient and cost-effective, with faster end-user response times and better SQL Server database performance. Rollouts of new PeopleSoft software are easier and proactive monitoring provides quicker notification and resolution of systems issues.
The Silicon Valley’s smart hospital is looking forward to bright future with an advanced, intelligent infrastructure.
At a Glance
El Camino Hospital
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Healthcare provider
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Located in Mountain View, California
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Serves a population of approximately 400,000
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Delivers medical services to 22,000 inpatients and 170,000 outpatients annually
The Relationship
Experience, Communication and a Long-term View
“We look for partners who are leaders in their industries — strong players who offer more than a point solution and who will be around for a long time,” says Zielazinski.
“Unisys hasn’t just supplied us with hardware and professional services. They've really become a strategic partner of Eclipsys and El Camino Hospital,” says Wagner.
“When you start to look at the vendors that have experience in large-scale Windows data centers, it comes down to a very, very small number. Unisys is heads above the competition. The Unisys Plan, Build, Run, Monitor approach allowed us to very quickly identify what we wanted to accomplish and how to get there fast.”
Bud James
Director of Technical Services
El Camino Hospital
“Unisys had the greatest five-year return on investment, quickest install, fastest pay back and gave us even greater flexibility in terms of managing and consolidating our infrastructure.”
Mark Zielazinski
Chief Information Officer
El Camino Hospital
