Windows 7Customer Solution Case Study

Hospital Deploys Modern Desktops to Boost Productivity, Reduces IT Effort by 75 Percent

OverviewCountry or Region: United StatesIndustry: Healthcare

Customer ProfileResurrection Health Care, a nationally ranked leader in quality care, has 13,000 employees and provides comprehensive healthcare services at more than 100 locations—including six major hospitals— in the Chicago, Illinois, area.

Business SituationFor its new Northwest Wing at Resur-rection Medical Center, Resurrection Health Care wanted to deploy clinical workstations that performed well and were consistent from device to device—areas where existing PCs left significant room for improvement.

SolutionResurrection Health Care selected HP PCs running Windows 7 and Windows Internet Explorer 8.

Benefits Improved user productivity and

satisfaction Increased PC speed, reliability, and

security Reduced IT effort by 75 percent Strong return on investment Blueprint for future success

"The new workstations have definitely contributed to an increase in patient satisfaction scores, a decrease in usage of call lights, and increased RN satisfaction.”

Kathleen A. Cantos, RN, BSN, CCRN, Nurse Manager, Intensive Care, Resurrection Medical Center

Resurrection Health Care provides healthcare services at more than 100 locations in the Chicago area, including six major hospitals. When the healthcare system built a new Northwest Wing at Resurrection Medical Center, it wanted to deploy PCs that doctors, nurses, and other clinicians could walk up to and use—without any of the drawbacks presented by its existing PC environment. Resurrection Health Care chose new PCs running Windows 7 Enterprise and Windows Internet Explorer 8, deploying approximately 150 such devices. Hospital staff productivity has been enhanced because PCs are always within easy reach, all work the same way, and deliver consistently strong performance. The new desktops have also benefited IT staff, who have seen a 75 percent reduction in the time spent maintaining system images, deploying new systems, and fielding help-desk calls.

Works the way you want

SituationResurrection Health Care, a not-for-profit Catholic organization sponsored by the Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth and the Sisters of the Resurrection, provides comprehensive healthcare services at more than 100 locations in the Chicago area—including six major hospitals. In 2010, Resurrection Health Care was recognized with the Distinguished Hospital Award for Clinical Excellence at three hospitals, 14 specialty excellence awards, and 48 five-star ratings, placing it among the top healthcare systems in the United States.

In early 2010, Resurrection Health Care finished building a new Northwest Wing at its premier health care facility, Resurrection Medical Center. Designed as a patient-centric, healing environment, the new wing contains 150 inpatient beds on four floors—all private rooms. For the healthcare system’s IT staff, the new wing presented an opportunity to deploy clinical workstations that were as up-to-date as the other new equipment that would be going into the facility. “Our goal was to deploy clinical workstations that were user friendly and easy to manage—intuitive PCs that doctors, nurses, and other clinicians could walk up to and use,” says Mike Baran, Senior Director of Technical Services at Resurrection Health Care.

In deploying those new desktops, Resurrection Health Care sought to avoid the limitations of the hospital’s existing PC environment, which consisted of approximately 800 systems running the Windows XP Professional operating system

and the Windows Internet Explorer 6 browser. Many of those issues were related to the diversity of the desktop systems. “We were coming from an environment with a lot of disparity in hardware, applications, drivers, and so on,” says Baran. “There was no consistent approach to PC configuration—instead, specific applications varied by floor, unit, or specialty. In addition, because we weren’t able to fully lock down the environment, system configurations could be changed by users and tended to vary from one PC to the next.”

That disparity often led to frustration among hospital staff, who sometimes had to try several PCs before finding one that could meet their needs. “There were never enough PCs for everyone in the first place, so the inconsistency from desktop to desktop only compounded the problem,” says Baran. “We received a steady stream of complaints about PCs that weren’t working, were too slow, or that didn’t have an application someone needed.”

The disparate environment also meant more work for IT staffers, who fielded several help-desk calls a day across the hospital’s 800 PCs. In addition, one full-time IT staff member was required to maintain more than two dozen standard PC images. “With so many different models, processing speeds, and memory requirements for different applications, our old desktop environment was difficult and labor-intensive to maintain,” says Baran. “We had to configure the operating system in different ways depending on which applications it would run, and some PCs couldn’t handle certain applications at all.”

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“One of the things we like about Windows 7 is how easily we can customize the desktop—we couldn’t have implemented such an uncluttered and user-friendly look-and-feel with Windows XP.”

Chris Haller, Technical Project Manager, Resurrection Health Care

It was also time consuming for IT staffers to image and reimage systems. After installing software, technicians had to manually apply registry settings and configuration options—information that the team maintained for each configuration in a large spreadsheet. “After reimaging, we spent two to three hours manually adjusting settings,” says Baran. “Even then, because of the limitations we faced, users could still change things, install additional applications, delete icons, and so on.”

SolutionResurrection Health Care chose new PCs running the Windows 7 Enterprise operating system and Windows Internet Explorer 8 for its new Northwest Wing and deployed approximately 150 such devices throughout the facility. “We looked at Windows 7 and Internet Explorer 8 as a fresh start—a way to standardize on current versions and take advantage of all that they have to offer,” says Baran. “In retrospect, we made the right decision. Everything worked out very well.”

Planning, Testing, and DeploymentPlanning began at the end of March 2010. Resurrection Health Care established a comprehensive application test plan in which the project team tested more than 50 applications across several patient scenarios. During testing and remediation, the team looked to new capabilities in Windows 7 and Internet Explorer 8 to help address any incompatibilities. “With Windows 7, we knew that we could use Windows XP Mode to address any compatibility issues,” says Baran. “However, in the end, we didn’t even need to do that.

And with Internet Explorer 8 tools, such as Group Policy and Compatibility View, we were able to get all web-based applications to work correctly.”

In June 2010, the project team started bringing in groups of users to familiarize them with the new devices. “We trained more than 400 nurses, patient care technicians, and unit receptionists—and offered training to nearly 500 physicians, residents, and medical students,” says Mary Ellen Kripp, Senior Project Manager, Applications, Resurrection Health Care. “Some people are afraid to touch anything they’re not familiar with, so we encouraged early involvement and gave people time to work with the devices.”

The project team continued tweaking the PCs after they were deployed, reimaging them several times as they fine-tuned the new environment. Use of Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 for image deployment made this a painless process, as did the use of Group Policy settings and Group Policy preferences for Windows 7 and Internet Explorer 8. “We were able to completely eliminate the manual configuration process after imaging a system; instead, we used Group Policy and Group Policy preferences to apply all configuration settings,” says Chris Haller, Technical Project Manager at Resurrection Health Care. Plentiful, Predicable, and Intuitive WorkstationsToday, workstations in the new wing are plentiful and within easy reach, and all of them work exactly the same way. “Each bed unit has 25 or more deployed devices,

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“Applications start quicker and perform better on Windows 7 than they did before.”

Jim Murrell, Field Services Team Lead, Resurrection Health Care

including 15 wall-mounted devices located in alcoves between every patient room, four at the nursing station, two to four in the nurse conference rooms, and four in a centralized physician’s lounge,” says Baran. “We chose HP business PCs, with an all-in-one design that integrates the processor, hard drive, and so on into the 23-inch monitor chassis. That made them easy to deploy, took up less desk space, and enabled us to easily mount them so they can’t be moved.”

To deliver a solution that would appeal to all staff roles, the project team implemented a clean, uncluttered desktop design, with large, tile-like icons that enable users to quickly and easily find the application they need (Figure 1). “One of the things we like about Windows 7 is how easily we can customize the desktop—we couldn’t have implemented such an uncluttered and user-friendly look-and-feel with Windows XP,” says Haller.

The PCs use a generic account to log on to the hospital’s network when they start up, enabling care givers to simply walk up to any workstation and use their credentials to access individual applications. “As an added layer of precaution, we used Windows 7 configuration options to dim workstation monitors between patient rooms after two minutes, and those in the nursing stations after five minutes,” says Baran. “This also helps us conserve power and reduce energy costs.”

BenefitsFor Resurrection Health Care, the decision to adopt Windows 7 and Internet Explorer 8 benefits both caregivers and IT personnel. Doctors and nurses are more productive because PCs are now always within easy reach, all work the same way, and deliver consistently better performance than the systems they used in the past. For IT personnel, the decision to standardize on Windows 7 and Internet Explorer 8 has enabled them to effectively lock down and centrally manage all systems in the new wing, leading to significantly fewer help-desk calls—with similar time savings in the areas of image management and deployment.

Improved User Productivity and SatisfactionCaregivers in the new wing no longer wait in line for a PC—or go from system to system to find one that will meet their needs. "In the old unit, the nurses and residents competed for the computers,” says Kathleen A. Cantos, RN, BSN, CCRN, a Nurse Manager at Resurrection Medical Center. “The doctors took up residence in two areas of the unit, leaving the RNs to

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Figure 1. Large, readable tiles enable caregivers to quickly access desired applications.

“User productivity gains are almost immeasurable, given the additional functionality and flexibility that they have gained.”Mary Ellen Kripp, Senior Project Manager,

Applications, Resurrection Health Care

work off of four to five computers for 17 patients. Today, there are enough computers for everyone."

Consistency from device to device has also contributed to increased user productivity and satisfaction. “Users can do what they need from any device, without any variation from PC to PC,” says Baran. “Our goal was to deliver an environment where the PCs function like automatic teller machines—in that anyone can walk up and use them—and we’ve been able to do just that.”

Increased PC Speed, Reliability, and SecurityImproved PC performance also contributes to increased user productivity and satisfaction. Employees no longer log on to the hospital’s network and wait one to two minutes before they can access desired applications, nor do they wait as long for applications to start. “Applications start quicker and perform better on Windows 7 than they did before,” says Jim Murrell, Field Services Team Lead at Resurrection Health Care. In addition, employees are no longer inconvenienced by the need to restart PCs. “With Windows 7, we rarely have to restart systems,” says Murrell. “When we do, it only takes one-third the time.” Haller attributes the overall system stability—and the resulting increase in user satisfaction and productivity—to his team’s ability to completely lock down the systems. “Today we use Group Policy and Group Policy preferences to completely lock down all systems so that users can’t make changes that might compromise system stability or consistency,” says Haller. “We’re even using

Group Policy to configure trusted sites for Internet Explorer 8 and to set the time delays for dimming the workstation monitors.”

The ability to fully lock down all systems has also helped Resurrection Health Care increase security. “Users can no longer install any applications on their own, which helps make the environment more secure,” says Baran. “In addition, with Internet Explorer 8 features, such as the SmartScreen Filter and Data Execution Prevention, we can provide users with full Internet access without having to worry as much about web-based threats.”

Reduced IT Effort by 75 PercentBy deciding to standardize on Windows 7 and Internet Explorer 8—and to deploy that software with System Center Configuration Manager—Resurrection Health Care has reduced IT effort in several areas, including:

Image management. With Windows XP, IT personnel had to maintain more than two dozen different system images. With Windows 7, the team only needs to maintain, update, and test a single system image, with drivers automatically applied during the imaging process.

Image deployment. The IT team can reimage a system running Windows 7 in about an hour, compared to the four hours it used to take with Windows XP. “A large part of that time savings is the elimination of manual configuration, as enabled by the ability to handle all post-imaging customization and configuration using Group Policy,” says Murrell. “With Windows 7, we can reimage all 150

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“Overall, we’re able to support our new Windows 7 environment with about one-quarter the IT effort—efficiency gains that span the spectrum of IT tasks ranging from image management and deployment to daily system management and support.”

Mike Baran, Senior Director, Technical Services, Resurrection Health Care

machines in a day if the need arises. With Windows XP, we were lucky if we could do 10 systems in a day.”

Help-desk calls. The move to Windows 7 has virtually eliminated help-desk calls for the new systems. “With Windows XP, we receive four to five help-desk calls a day across 800 devices,” says Baran. “With Windows 7, that number has essentially decreased to zero. And if future issues do arise, new troubleshooting tools in Windows 7, such as the Problem Steps Recorder, will enable us to diagnose and resolve issues faster.”

Summarizes Baran, “Overall, we’re able to support our new Windows 7 environment with about one-quarter the IT effort—efficiency gains that span the spectrum of IT tasks ranging from image management and deployment to daily system management and support.”

In turn, that reduction in IT effort is helping Resurrection Health Care minimize the cost of supporting its new environment. Some of those same capabilities—namely, faster and more automated imaging—helped reduce initial deployment costs. “Had we gone with Windows XP, initial deployment would have taken three hours more per device,” says Baran. “At an average technician rate of [U.S.]$30 an hour, that’s a savings of more than $10,000. These productivity gains were significant because they allowed us to meet other project commitments.”

Strong Return on Investment

By far, the largest return on investment being realized by Resurrection Health Care is increased productivity. “User productivity gains are almost immeasurable, given the additional functionality and flexibility that they have gained,” says Kripp. “For us as an IT team, the biggest win was in the ability to get everything just right. Today, we get more compliments than complaints, which is a strong measure of success.”

The IT team’s efforts to create an ideal end-user environment has been consistently acknowledged by hospital staff, who can focus more effectively on taking care of patients. "The new workstations have definitely contributed to an increase in patient satisfaction scores, a decrease in usage of call lights, and increased RN satisfaction,” says Cantos.

Blueprint for Future SuccessBaran’s team is already building on the work it did in the new Northwest Wing to meet additional business needs. “We just finished deploying 100 new laptops running Windows 7 and Internet Explorer 8 to our Home Health Care unit,” says Baran. “We built on our recent work for the wing, using technologies such as System Center Configuration Manager and Group Policy to stage, build, and configure those systems. After we had the image defined, we were able to fully image and configure all 100 of those systems in about one hour each.”

Baran also notes that his team is being flooded with requests to repeat what it did in the new wing at other locations. “People really appreciate the ease of use, reliability, consistency, and performance we’ve been able to deliver,” he says. “It’s fair to say that

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“For us as an IT team, the biggest win was in the ability to get everything just right. Today, we get more compliments than complaints, which is a strong measure of success.”Mary Ellen Kripp, Senior Project Manager,

Applications, Resurrection Health Care

Windows 7 usage will increase at Resurrection Health Care—we certainly won’t refresh existing PCs with anything else.”

Windows 7Works the way you want: Windows 7 will help your organization use information technology to gain a competitive advantage in today’s new world of work. Your people will be able to be more productive anywhere. You will be able to support your mobile workforce with better access to shared data and collaboration tools. And your IT staff will have better tools and technologies to enhance corporate IT security, data protection, and more efficient deployment and management.

For more information about Windows 7, go to:www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7

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For More InformationFor more information about Microsoft products and services, call the Microsoft Sales Information Center at (800) 426-9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft Canada Information Centre at (877) 568-2495. Customers in the United States and Canada who are deaf or hard-of-hearing can reach Microsoft text telephone (TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234. Outside the 50 United States and Canada, please contact your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access information using the World Wide Web, go to:www.microsoft.com

For more information about Resurrection Health Care, visit the website at: www.reshealth.org

This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.

Document published December 2010

Software and Services Windows 7 Enterprise Microsoft Server Product Portfolio− Microsoft System Center

Configuration Manager 2007

Technologies− Windows Internet Explorer 8− Group Policy

Hardware 150 HP all-in-one PCs