I have daily status meetings with various groups within the technology team, and the question is almost always, “What’s the challenge today?” In some cases, the challenge may be, “He at the outpatient clinic cannot print on one,” or “Currently, we cannot send diagnostic images to a radiologist in a remote location.” Meetings help us focus our attention. My job as her CTO at OU Health in Oklahoma City is to resolve problems that arise in meetings and try to minimize or eliminate repeat problems in the future.
To do that, we needed to get to the root of the problem. This, along with our desire to replace electronic health records and revenue cycle systems, contributed to OU Health’s decision to completely overhaul its IT infrastructure to support long-term organizational needs.
OU Health strives to bring innovation to patients. As an academic health system, we operate one of 71 National Cancer Institute-designated cancer centers in the country, Oklahoma’s only Level I trauma center and the state’s best NICU, and are committed to quality. We provide high quality patient care and conduct clinical trials that lead to exciting new treatments. . An IT overhaul doesn’t just solve day-to-day problems; it fundamentally transforms the way we manage our infrastructure and the enterprise and clinical systems we use to support healthcare professionals and patients. To do.
Completely modernizing a health system’s IT infrastructure is a difficult task. To use a well-worn cliché, it’s like trying to tamper with the engine of a running train. This process required dedication, careful planning, the work of my team, and the support of technology partners like Cisco to pull together a solution and deploy it across his OU Health sites.
A fresh start, a greenfield network, and some limitations
I have had the privilege of working in the healthcare IT field for over 13 years. His previous experience includes Cablevision, where he was Vice President of Technology Architecture for seven years, and Discovery, where he was Vice President of Enterprise Architecture for two years, where he gained a wealth of knowledge in communications and entertainment. After a six-month sabbatical, I had the opportunity to return to my previous role, but decided to use my expertise to help others in a more effective way. As a family practice provider and educator, watching his wife struggle with her organization’s IT for years made me aware of the difficulties that arise when working with health IT systems. Thanks to a friend I worked with early in my career, I joined a healthcare consulting firm and began a career in healthcare IT helping doctors and patients achieve the best possible outcomes in healthcare. I started it.
OU Health is Oklahoma’s first fully integrated academic health system, OU Health is the first fully integrated academic health system in Oklahoma, following a historic merger that combined the faculty operations of the University of Oklahoma School of Medicine with OU Medicine, Inc. (the only member of the University Hospitals Trust). Health, which was officially launched in July 2021. The merger brings together OU Health’s clinical operations and national best practices from across the healthcare industry, allowing the hospital and clinics to become one integrated, cohesive organization.
Since arriving at OU Health in March 2022, I have worked closely with the IT leadership team on the Epic migration project. This initiative transitioned OU Health to the new HIS EHR system. To achieve this, we implemented greenfield solutions that set up new networks, systems, data centers, and applications while keeping legacy systems running.
Unfortunately, our environment was not the best. It was characterized by outdated equipment, duplicate solutions, outdated code, and unpatched equipment, creating many challenges. The network was also very slow, so it took him 15-30 minutes for the radiologist to download his X-rays and his CAT scan to a remote location.
This hindered workflow and caused frustration among clinicians and hospital staff. They had to call us every time something went wrong, and we had no way to actively monitor and restore the system. When the link went down, we didn’t know how to fix it. It was clear that a complete overhaul was needed to allow healthcare professionals to focus on patient care without worrying about technical issues.
We wanted redundancy, resiliency, and performance – and it was Cisco.
Healthcare organizations are somewhat conservative when it comes to IT procurement. We don’t look for the latest solution or the cheapest solution. We won’t cut costs because patients’ lives are at stake. Instead, we focus on state-of-the-art, proven systems. We take this approach when selecting laboratory equipment, diagnostic imaging systems, surgical supplies, and more.
OU Health has a long-standing relationship with Cisco, and our lead engineer CCIE Enterprise Infrastructure Certification. Our in-house project managers also have decades of experience managing large-scale Cisco deployments. We all know that Cisco can deliver high-performance, redundant, and resilient infrastructure. However, my job requires me to be objective, so I attend events such as the Gartner Summit and the annual HIMSS Global Health Conference & Exhibition to observe the current situation. . I have a good understanding of the technology landscape, but I have yet to find a partner that can deliver on the promise of Cisco.
Hospitals are 24/7 facilities, and their infrastructure must fully support no-down scenarios.
When creating specifications for the new environment, we focused on three things: high redundancy, high resiliency, and high performance. OU Health, like most healthcare organizations, operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and the infrastructure must fully support no-down scenarios. When building a new environment, we didn’t ask, “Why Cisco?” The real question was, “Why not Cisco?”
Redefine your network with Software-Defined Networking
When it came time to propose new infrastructure, the team worked with Cisco network architects, external partners, and internal lead architects. We put together a funding request and presented it to the board. We expected executive approval to be less than our budget request, but instead we received everything we had asked for, including a state-of-the-art network and systems environment that would put OU Health on the map. Permission was granted to build. As a first-class medical center.
We built a new network based on Cisco technology.Its core layer is Cisco ACI (Application Centric Infrastructure)is a software-defined networking solution that helps you segment your network. We built redundant high-speed links across our wide area network (WAN) and created multiple paths connecting our core network to hospitals, clinics, and ambulatory systems. Next, have multiple routers that handle software-defined networking and segmentation. If a router or segment fails, traffic is redirected to an alternate path.
We use Cisco ACI to route traffic to specific destinations within our network. A good example is experimental results. Our laboratory equipment does not communicate with the outside world, but the technician needs to send the results to her EMR. So we segmented the network so that the results were only transferred to a specific server, which then uploaded them to the system of record.
Patient health involves medical data, and we prioritize the security of our patients’ protected health information (PHI). Using ACI, he created a firewall zone for PHI and other sensitive data in accordance with HIPAA regulations. Users can access the environment only when they are performing a transaction that requires that information.
we also use Cisco UCS server For scalable efficiency and agility, Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) Endpoint management is handled end-to-end. Cisco wireless solutionsconsisting of Cisco Catalyst 9130AX and 9166 Access Points and 9800-80 controller. In addition, we adopted Cisco VDI To integrate some of our legacy systems (running on old machines) into the new infrastructure. Virtualizing these allows them to remain operational until the system can be replaced without interrupting care.
Data center migration for IT transparency
Our three new data centers are taking on the new network load. Our two data centers are active/active and mirroring each other, splitting the workload in two and each facility running at 50% capacity. Our third data center is for disaster recovery (DR) and has redundant links to all hospital, clinic, and outpatient systems. If the unexpected happens and your primary data center fails, a third data center ensures continuity of operations.
One of our biggest challenges and opportunities was migrating our systems and infrastructure to new, more sustainable data centers. Instead of building our own on-premises data center, we decided to partner with a top-tier colocation facility that could host our data center and significantly reduce our footprint. We partnered with TierPoint and he was one of the first customers of the new facility, which was built with efficiency in mind. They designed power, cooling, air conditioning equipment, and building materials to reduce carbon emissions. It benefits from robust redundancy and backup capabilities, and energy-efficient technology helps protect your environment while reducing operating costs. Moving our data center off-premises was one of our best business and technology decisions.
On June 3, 2023, OU Health went live with Epic and new infrastructure. Already he had migrated to a new primary network in March 2023, but this was the final test. We are already benefiting from the new Cisco infrastructure. We no longer respond to complaints about slow Wi-Fi speeds, connection failures, network segment outages, or VPN issues. OU Health has instant access to what you need, allowing patients to get what they need faster. We look forward to working with our care team to find ways to expand, innovate, and build new platforms.
Cisco helps organizations improve OU Health
In the near future, my IT team will be able to leverage the new Cisco network to realize and execute on OU Health’s business vision. We anticipated the need to build more WAN connections and create a comprehensive map of both current and future conditions so new departments, locations, and facilities could be integrated into the network more quickly. Previously, adding a network was a one-time event. But now, we can expand the platform as needed to add powerful new applications such as data analytics and population health management (PHM) tools to aggregate patient information across multiple systems and technologies. . By deploying Epic, we have a solid foundation to push the boundaries of quality patient care and cutting-edge research.
Top talent gravitates to organizations where they can add value by supporting the business vision, rather than solving problems.
Our new Cisco infrastructure is a valuable talent acquisition and recruitment tool. Clinicians and researchers also want to work in high-tech environments. They prefer user-friendly systems to struggling with electronic forms, drowning in endless emails, or waiting hours for medical images, test results, trial data, and patient data. When you have the most efficient tools and your IT works perfectly, you can focus on your patients and your research.
OU Health is on a mission to elevate and transform our organization into a premier academic health system. Our leadership believes technology is key to realizing our vision and business strategy. We are expanding our services and research efforts and will continue to innovate in the areas of diabetes, cancer care, pediatrics and geriatrics. We want to make a difference in Oklahoma and beyond by providing the best health care to the people we serve.
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