Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center is a non-profit, 601-bed teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School and a recognized leader across multiple medical disciplines including cardiology, oncology and neurology. The Medical Center’s drive to expand EHR and PM access to affiliated physician offices represents the latest stage of Beth Israel Deaconess CIO Dr. John Halamka’s mission to use IT to enhance the quality of patient care, reduce medical errors and improve patient outcomes.

“Equipping remote physician offices with EHR and PM capabilities can provide a number of benefits ranging from enhanced decision support to standardized billing processes,” said Bob Rossi, senior director for CDW Healthcare. “However, both the parent institution hosting the applications and the individual practices responsible for acquiring the supporting hardware need to be aware of the significant challenges in a large-scale rollout. Standardized products, consistent imaging and staggered deployments are necessary to ensure a sustainable model that won’t overwhelm smaller offices.”

During the planning stage of its EHR project, BIDMC is enlisting the help of CDW Healthcare to pre-configure and deliver the infrastructure and desktop solutions that will enable physician offices to access the Medical Center’s patient information and practice management databases. The deployment includes a variety of wireless-capable products such as desktops, laptops and tablet PCs, all of which will be pre-configured by CDW Healthcare to be truly plug-and-play upon arrival. CDW Healthcare also worked with BIDMC to enhance the server capacity of the EHR project data center, ensuring that the Medical Center has the capability to support project demands.

In its role as BIDMC’s infrastructure provider, CDW Healthcare is working directly with the physician offices to streamline acquisition processes by creating a Web-based purchasing portal that will enable affiliated practices to select hardware from a list of standardized products. To simplify equipment delivery schedules, CDW Healthcare will pursue a “just-in-time” policy, which ensures that all necessary components will arrive within a 16-hour window as specified by the individual office.

BIDMC is establishing a model office that will serve as a test site for future deployments. An additional four offices are slated to be fully equipped by June, with subsequent implementations to follow over six-week increments.

“Our EHR and PM rollout presents a number of challenges, not the least of which are the logistical hurdles of ensuring dozens of remote offices can effectively and securely share information among themselves and the Medical Center,” said Bill Gillis, manager of IS clinical systems for BIDMC. “From pre-configuring the hardware to streamlining the acquisition process to pursuing a staggered deployment schedule, CDW Healthcare will provide us with the level of support and expertise we need to ensure that affiliated physicians can focus on what matters most – our patients.”

About Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
A teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center is renowned for excellence in patient care, biomedical research, teaching and community service. Located in the heart of Boston's medical community, it hosts nearly three quarters of a million patient visits annually in and around Boston. Today, the medical center is renowned for excellence in surgery (including general, cardiovascular, thoracic, gastrointestinal, solid organ transplant and vascular surgery), with minimally invasive approaches to many procedures. BIDMC is also known for treatment of cardiac conditions, cancer, and pulmonary and thoracic disorders; and for our expertise in neurosciences, gastroenterology and liver disease, obstetrics and women's health, podiatry, and emergency and trauma medicine. BIDMC is the official hospital of the Boston Red Sox. BIDMC provides an exceptionally caring environment for patients and families, especially through its “heart and soul” programs – geriatric care, social work, palliative care and affiliated community health centers.

About CDW Healthcare
CDW Healthcare, part of the public sector subsidiary of CDW Corporation, is a leading provider of technology products and services focused exclusively on healthcare organizations. Working in partnership with customers ranging from small rural providers to large and complex integrated delivery networks, CDW Healthcare responds with a sense of urgency to customer technology needs, delivering best-in-class solutions from top-name brands such as IBM, HP, Cisco, Microsoft, Planar, EMC, Fujitsu, Symantec, Motion, Lenovo, Xerox and Lexmark. CDW Healthcare account management teams build strong relationships with more than 15,000 healthcare provider organizations nationwide by responding to customer IT infrastructure requirements with in-depth advice, technical expertise and the best technology that the industry has to offer. For more information about CDW Healthcare offerings, procurement options, services and solutions, call 847-968-0710.
www.cdwhealthcare.com