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Organization: For over 60 years, Virginia Hospital Center has provided exceptional medical services to the Washington metropolitan area. In November 2004, Virginia Hospital Center celebrated the Grand Opening of a new $150 million state-of-the-art facility. Virginia Hospital Center offers comprehensive healthcare and multiple Centers of Excellence including Cardiology & Cardiovascular Surgery, Oncology, and Women & Infant Health. Virginia Hospital Center is a teaching hospital, long-associated with Georgetown University’s School of Medicine.
Project: Integration/Interface Engine Implementation and Migration
Business Drivers: Integration implementations and associated data migrations can be the trickiest in the business. Although these systems run behind the scenes and get little attention, except if something goes wrong, they are among the most vital and complex systems on which and by which an organization operates. VHC had been traumatized several years ago by an EAI system go-live that was still fresh in the memory of management as well as the IT staff. This time around, VHC’s main goal was to migrate from its current-state integration environment to a new, faster and more stable system on a tight budget and timeframe, and with little margin for error… a daunting prospect given the aforementioned experiences in the recent past.
The Unison Systems Solution: VHC selected Unison Systems to manage their migration from start to finish, utilizing a blended team of Unison Systems EAI experts and VHC integration staff members. Under the direction of Unison Systems’ SME and Master Project Manager for Healthcare IT Services, the project began with a careful Phase 0 analysis of the current system which produced a visual diagram of every component and its associated files. Based on that analysis, a visual representation of the future system was created along side the current state architecture, and the implementation plan was laid out.
Every task associated with each future interface was given its place in the project plan. Even the weekly status meetings to review how the project was progressing were on the project plan. It was the desire of the VHC staff that each application’s interfaces would be grouped with one resource so that the users would be dealing with only one interface developer for each application. The project plan reflected this grouping.
Since the development of each interface included both new development and enhancement of existing code, Unison consultants were able to accomplish assigned tasks while engaging in valuable mentoring with VHC team members. This produced an added benefit, the integration team was extremely familiar with their system and readier to self-support it into the future.
Simple in theory, it takes a skilled Phase 0 analysis and a strong project leader to manage a blended team project to a successful outcome. In this case, resources were not bogged down with tasks not accounted for on the project plan. In addition to the Weekly Status Meetings, Weekly Task Reports were required, specifically referencing the task on the project plan. In order for a task to be marked complete, it had to be available for everyone to see. Documentation was not considered done until it was saved to the shared drive so it could be reviewed. An interface was not built until it was on the server and capable of running end-to-end without a hitch.
Business Result: By utilizing VHC’s talented integration team members on this project, Unison Systems was able to save VHC time and money while producing an excellent result. The project was completed on time and on budget, and everyone involved enjoyed a great sense of accomplishment. The new system runs faster, smoother and can process much more data. It is also the backbone of the hospital’s information system, supplying communications and data for many other crucial systems and departments. Both the project and the result were praised highly by the CIO, and the hospital possesses an integration team more likely to support its own system than seek outside help in the future.
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