ProfileUnity and FlexApp Deliver Speedy, "Follow Me" Desktops to Nursing Staff at Med Center
Willis-Knighton manages a network of hospitals, clinics and physicians for the provision of emergency care, women's services, cancer care and pediatric services to patients living in communities surrounding the organization's 13 health center offices. The IT staff at the medical center began to look at desktop virtualization to improve nurses' interaction with desktops. The goal was to enable nurses to access and update patients' record at the bedside instead of nurses' station. Workspaces needed to be personalized with custom interfaces tailored to their duties and responsive in order to promote nurses' efficiency. In addition, printer lists needed to be culled down to only local devices, as nurses moved from room to room and station to station.
Another major consideration was how their EHR software would perform on virtual desktops and if these applications could be delivered effectively and cost-efficiently. Coinciding with the virtual desktop project, Willis-Knighton was also facing a PC refresh and changing the existing EHR software to Cerner.
To sort through all of these objectives to get on the right path, Willis-Knighton IT staff began working with Liquidware partner, RoundTower Technologies, which specializes in creating modern, converged IT infrastructures. Working together, Willis-Knighton and RoundTower designed a virtual desktop environment that would meet the medical center's current and future needs. Central to this design was the deployment of Liquidware solutions ProfileUnity and FlexApp.
ProfileUnity solved Willis-Knighton's printer management challenge, gave nurses a personalized, familiar "follow me" Windows 7 desktop and managed application delivery in a way that simplified desktop image management and lowered software maintenance costs. The organization also uses FlexApp manages the delivery of the EHR applications delivering only those apps which nurses need based on their roles. Because FlexApp layers applications onto base images, the entire software lifecycle management process is a lot easier.
