by Ken Kupetsky, CIO, Burke Rehabilitation Hospital — February 18, 2011
Next week, I’ll be attending the annual HIMSS show with the team from Compellent, and I’m looking forward to taking in the sessions, walking the show floor and checking out the cutting-edge healthcare information management technology throughout the week. In addition, I’m interested in speaking with Dell about its healthcare solutions and how its plans to acquire Compellent will affect its future healthcare offerings. It also doesn’t hurt that the show is in Orlando – I just don’t know how I’ll survive without the four-foot high snow drifts and freezing temperatures of my home in White Plains, New York!
Kidding aside, I can’t wait for this trip because I’ll also be speaking at the show in a session called “Rehabbing IT Storage Pain Points and Protecting EMRs.” In this presentation, which takes place on Wednesday, Feb. 23 at 1 pm, I’ll be discussing how our efforts to modernize our data center has resulted in better performance for critical patient care applications, a reduced hardware footprint, and a comprehensive disaster recovery strategy. This subject is particularly close to my heart, as my team worked extremely hard to make this a reality.
The project began with the Compellent SAN. We implemented Compellent Fluid Data virtualized storage to replace our Hewlett-Packard legacy storage solution, which was outdated, couldn’t scale to when we needed more capacity, and impossible to manage. We also virtualized our Dell servers, and put a virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) in place to reduce our hardware needs and unnecessary IT complexity.
The results of this effort have been nothing short of spectacular. We’ve experienced better performance from our MediTech and MediServe applications, automated previously manual management tasks and even achieved HIMSS Stage 6 certification from our adoption and use of electronic medical records (EMRs). In fact, we were one of the first rehab hospitals to reach this goal – an honor everyone at Burke Rehab Hospital is extremely proud to point out.
While we’re thrilled with these results, we still have more work to accomplish. We have big plans for the IT capabilities of Burke Rehab Hospital, and what we have in place is just the beginning. We plan to continue innovating in the area of acute patient care, and Compellent is playing a very large role in that.
Going to HIMSS? Feel free to swing by the Compellent booth (#4173) and introduce yourself, and I hope you can attend my session!
Editor’s Note: Ken Kupetsky is the CIO of Burke Rehabilitation Hospital and is a Compellent customer. If you’re planning on attending HIMSS 2011, Mr. Kupetsky will be speaking on Wednesday, Feb. 23 at 1 pm in Room 311A.