Health system and Citrix create a dynamic connected healthcare model

Connected healthcare delivers better patient care

Healthcare is a connected enterprise and this health system understands this better than most. With tens of thousands of employees and over 15 campuses, they need to deliver lightning-fast access to patient records and keep costs under control.

Working to the tightest of budgets, they have become a master of connected care. The key to its operation, providing healthcare services across multiple states, is making sure care teams can access, share, and update patient records in real-time.

This is made possible through the health system’s engagement with Citrix. By leveraging the Citrix platform, they ensure its entire workforce has secure, reliable access to its electronic medical records (EMR) system. And as a result of fast and reliable access to EMR, staff can deliver higher standards of care, remaining focussed on the patient, and keeping patient safety paramount

Seamless mobile working for care teams

Access to Electronic Medical Records isn’t just secure and reliable; it's also incredibly fast.

Before this implementation, the customer relied on a roaming desktop solution which was slow to load and launch the former EMR. By leveraging the Citrix platform, clinicians can now access records 88% faster, getting to critical patient information in under 5 seconds. “Every second counts in healthcare,” says their Chief Technology Officer, “Those saved seconds go straight back to patient care.  

Today, care teams can walk up to any one of their 9,500 devices, use their badge to log in, and immediately get to work with up-to-date EMR records. This seamless mobile working is the backbone of their connected healthcare.

Central platform drives digital transformation  

Digital transformation can help deliver new operational efficiency and new standards in patient care. But for transformation to gain traction, it needs users on board.

“Our clinical teams rely on Citrix,” the CTO says. “Citrix has been and continues to be a large part of their infrastructure standard, and daily automation processes. Positive feedback from users generates the momentum we need to keep exploring new technology.”

The customer is open to innovation, and is happy to pioneer new ideas. The strength of the Citrix platform provides assurance that new applications can be delivered efficiently and effectively.

“The close alignment between the EMR system, Microsoft, and Citrix is a huge factor in our success. Microsoft is a big part of our AI and cloud strategy; EMR runs seamlessly on the Citrix platform. Continuity of technology will help accelerate our transformation,” he explains.  

Citrix, simplifies the management of applications in a constantly growing environment, allowing the business to scale its digital workflows without needing to add headcount. Citrix enables their Senior Systems Architect, and their team of three, to manage application access for upwards of 20,000 users each day.

It is not only EMR that Citrix delivers, the Senior Systems Architect adds: “There are all kinds of third-party applications that are business critical. Being able to centrally manage version controls on our endpoints, with everything inside of a data center or region, has been huge. From a security standpoint, if something is installed that isn't supposed to be installed, we just reboot a server and get back to the state we need to be in. Being able to lock down the Citrix sessions so that no file transfers can be done to the local endpoint is key to securing our data and mitigating risk.”

Consolidation on Citrix platform delivers cost and efficiency savings

The customer has always been an innovative organization, with technology at the heart of its business strategy; it was one of the first healthcare providers in the region to move to the cloud. It now works out of two Azure data centers, this move was in part to strengthen business resiliency, and part a cost exercise. 

The engagement with Citrix is no different. By consolidating on the Citrix platform, they have been able to deliver maximum value from its licensing agreement, whilst optimizing efficiency.  “The ability to use thin clients helps us wring maximum lifecycle out of our devices. We’ve extended our hardware refresh cycle by two years with Citrix,” the CTO admits. “As a non-profit we need to do all we can to optimize our investments, particularly in non-medical technology.”

In addition, Citrix NetScaler enables the customer to efficiently scale and optimize applications across any environment. Applications are delivered faster, with a better experience for end users and more cost-efficient use of application servers. A single dashboard allows their team to quickly remediate issues.

“All our EMR load balancing goes through NetScaler,” says the Senior Systems Architect. “We have NetScaler deployed in almost any region or data center, whether that is inside of Azure or on-premises. Any application that requires load balancing, we leverage NetScaler.”

Platform approach drives M&A agility

This health system prizes the ability to move quickly. The business is acquisitional. Thirty years ago, it had a handful of campuses, today they are nearing twenty and further acquisitions are likely.

“Citrix makes it possible to move the environment of an acquired hospital very quickly,” says the Senior Systems Architect. “Before we moved to Azure and Citrix DaaS, ordering, installing, and deploying the necessary hardware and servers could take six months. Now we can provision the required capacity on-demand, significantly accelerating the deployment process.”

“If we’re making an acquisition,” the CTO adds, “we want to realize the value of that investment as quickly as possible. Citrix makes that possible, by enabling rapid deployment of standardized workflows while maintaining seamless access to legacy EMRs and applications, even when hosted across different domains and networks. Accelerating the implementation of our standards helps reduce costs and enhance patient care.”