NHS Shetland
Northgate delivered a network solution to NHS Shetland which provides a much more manageable, efficient and secure platform.
Background
NHS Shetland is dedicated to improving the health of the people of Shetland. Shetland NHS Board is responsible for determining the need for, and the provision of, healthcare facilities for both local residents and the transient population based on the North Sea oil installations, fishing vessels and other transient services.
A range of in-patient, day-patient, out-patient, accident and emergency and local community services are provided at two hospitals, 10 health centres and a number of other locations in the community including schools, mobile units, the remoter islands and patients' own homes.
The Business Challenge
The NHS Shetland network supports approximately 600 IT users, approximately 40 key clinical applications and 20 non-clinical applications such as payroll and the Board's intranet site, as well as the transmission of clinical data off site. Due to the geography of Shetland, the outlying primary care sites are commonly supported remotely as travel can be both time-consuming and weather dependant. The network is therefore critical to the delivery of patient care in both primary and secondary care within Shetland.
The NHS Shetland network had grown organically over a sustained period of time making it difficult to manage, diagnose problems and resolve faults. In addition, the server room did not conform to industry standards and posed a health and safety risk due to poor cable management and high temperatures. All these factors led to an inefficient and unreliable network which was impacting on staff productivity and ultimately customer service.
The Solution
Northgate provided consultancy services to support NHS Shetland in developing a network topology strategy that would provide a much more manageable, efficient and secure platform. This resulted in the delivery of a new highly resilient network and relocation of their primary node cabinet.
As a result of the implementation of the new network, NHS Shetland has seen a substantial reduction in helpdesk faults relating to network errors and a vastly improved return to business service, where a fault is identified.
Results
As a direct result of the network overhaul, faults can now be readily traced and addressed quickly, reducing the impact on service delivery. New users can be added to the network without significant delay and the cable management implemented ensures that the network capacity can be assessed at a glance. Pressures on the board's IT staff are also reduced due to a more reliable and resilient network.
Customer comment:
"The Northgate team undertook an audit of the network. Their recommendations ensured that the necessary downtime to the hospital network was kept to a minimum and the transfer to the new network was as seamless as possible. The team worked round the clock and I was hugely impressed with the dedication and professionalism of the engineers involved".
Carol Lawrence - Head of IM&T, NHS Shetland
