St. Joseph Health

Improve Patient and Physician Satisfaction Through Streamlined IT Operations

When St. Joseph Health System decided to re-engineer its IT systems and services, Perot Systems provided the answer through efficient leveraging of IT operations, world-class service delivery, and strategic partnering to support the improvement of patient care through technology and innovation.

The Challenge

St. Joseph Health Systems’ (SJHS) multiple, geographically dispersed facilities created inefficient IS support and information sharing across the system. The centralized and decentralized approach to technology support made enterprise changes within the diverse health system difficult, and the leveraging of internal talent and knowledge cumbersome. SJHS searched for better ways to integrate IS operations, deploy innovative solutions to improve patient care delivery, and attract talented resources.

The Solution

Perot Systems began its relationship with SJHS in 1999 after being selected to develop a strategic IT plan that aligned the organization’s IT and corporate strategic visions. In February 2000,  SJHS chose Perot Systems to provide IT services, operations, and the support needed to implement the strategic plan.

The goal was to help SJHS consolidate, streamline, and drive efficiencies into their IT operations. These efficiencies would then allow the health system to reallocate spending for projects that facilitated easier access to information and focused on integration and future positioning of the health system.

Perot Systems’ first step was to immediately infuse senior IT management professionals and assist SJHS in regionally centralizing operations and support functions, such as help desk, applications support, and network services. We also created a new state-of-the-art data center and implemented Enterprise Systems Management (ESM) capabilities to enhance network, server, application and desktop capabilities in order to achieve high system availability.

Additionally, the Perot Systems team helped SJHS create a technology strategy that supports and enhances patient care and clinical satisfaction. Key milestones included:

• Implementation of wireless solutions for ER, physician office, and clinical care mobility. 
• Utilization of thin client technologies to create a highly available clinical workstation environment. 
• Implementation and leveraging of a high-speed Storage Area Network (SAN) and tape backup technologies.
• Implementation of a high-speed, redundant wide-area network.
• Establishment of business partner relationships with key technology and software providers.
• Roll out of a large-scale Care Redesign program.
• Quick implementation of a Picture Archiving and Communications System (PACS).

“It is really all about providing the ‘invisible hospital/physician technology experience’ for the patient,” said Benjamin R. Williams, SJHS CIO and Senior Vice President. “IT and business processes should be seamlessly wrapped together to create healing results for the patient.”

The Results

IT service quality was one of the highest priorities during the initial phase of Perot Systems’ relationship with SJHS. We enabled SJHS to significantly improve service levels, increase IS accountability, and instill a proactive culture.

Through a sound strategic plan, as well as clinical and technology solutions specific to SJHS' environment, SJHS has achieved the following results:

• Improved IT service delivery
• Enhanced subject matter expertise and the retention of hospital employees 
• Improved support processes associated with patient care delivery 
• Increased quality and timeliness of patient results reporting 
• Enabled enterprise-wide utilization of hardware and software solutions SJHS can now measure and manage IT service performance to ensure improved customer service, as well as on-demand technology support for enhancing the delivery of care. SJHS and Perot Systems continue to focus on improving the quality of IT support and implementing technology solutions that position the health system to successfully manage the complexity of care delivery now and in the future.