Case Study: THIS NHS
THIS NHS: Making life better and care safer
With Lenovo as the trusted IT partner THIS delivers more than just IT in boxes.
Intersecting technology and healthcare
It’s hard to think back to a time when technology didn’t pervade every realm of business. Consider hospitals ten years ago: two, maybe three, big clunky PCs dotted a central location as
doctors zigzagged back and forth between patients and the computer screen.
“Now, you walk into a hospital and you see clinicians actually using their devices to interact with patients at the bedside,” says Keith Redmond, program director at The Health Informatics Service (THIS) — the IT shared service provider for a growing number of hospitals and general practitioners throughout the United Kingdom.
THIS is a large well-established organization hosted by the Calderdale and Huddersfield National Health Service (NHS) Foundation Trust.
As part of a team supporting over 16,000 devices and 40,000 people working in the healthcare sector, Redmond knows a thing or two about technology in a clinical setting. “I get to go out, look at all the new products and decide whether they’re something that’s right for the organization,” Redmond says. “Basically, I get to play with a lot of new toys all the time,” he laughs.
Choosing the right IT partner for growth
When asked to find the right products to quickly set up 24 different training rooms to accommodate 6,000 staff across two hospitals, Redmond knew where to turn. “We’ve been with Lenovo now for about four years,” he says. “They have a good selection and they understand us as a customer and what we need.”
For this particular project, with a turnaround of just under 12 weeks, Redmond was on the hunt for PCs that were easy to install and had the flexibility of being used somewhere else in the hospital once the training was finished.
Deciding to implement Lenovo’s ThinkCentre M900 and 24-inch Tiny-in-One monitors for the job, the devices not only helped THIS meet their deadline, but completely blow it out of the water.
I think people see the Lenovo brand and recognize it as a market leader, so they’re secure in the knowledge that we’re investing in the right areas, products and manufacturer.
—Keith Redmond
Program director
The Health Informatics Service (THIS)
Saving big on money, time and space
“We set up those training rooms in probably six or seven days,” says Rob Birkett, assistant director of operations for THIS. “We literally just picked them up, put them on the desk, plugged them in and they were ready to go.”
By using the Lenovo products, THIS was able to save both time and money without having to completely overhaul the spaces they were setting up as short-term training centers.
“In the past, we’d take a room and spend a lot of money fixing it out properly,” says Redmond. “We’d put in like 20 network connections and 40 power sockets. The last time we set up training rooms, it took us around three months to complete, from start to finish.”
Agile, quick and flexible solution
Besides speeding up the installment process by an exponential rate, the Lenovo hardware is also flexible enough to be re-implemented in other ways. “Following the training, we deployed some 220 Lenovo Tiny-in-Ones out to wards and medical centers and back into stock credit,” says Birkett.
For the staff using the monitors, the large, widescreen displays have made it easier to access more medical applications at the same time. Instead of flipping from one to the other, the clinicians can now view electronic patient records together with radiography images — ultimately increasing productivity levels. Describing the overall feedback among trainees and staff, Redmond says that it’s all been positive.
With Lenovo’s account managers constantly coming in to make sure we have the right products, we’re able to stay informed about the changes that are coming up in the near future.
Embracing the paperless future
As technology continues to change the face of healthcare, the NHS aims to be paperless by 2020 and THIS plans to continue its strong relationship with Lenovo in order to stay on top of their goals.
By better understanding what these upcoming devices will look like, THIS will continue its role as an organization that realizes the importance of technology being at the forefront of healthcare. “Realistically speaking, it’s making life better and care safer,” says Birkett. “And whilst it’s all IT in boxes and cables, it’s actually a hospital that you’re running. So it’s not just IT, it’s a little bit bigger than that.”
Click here to access PDF version
