Picture of Health: Cisco Provides a ‘Blessing’ Undisguised

Blessing Hospital, the top hospital and trauma center in Western Illinois, needed help. The facility, which opened its doors in 1875, now is comprised of two hospitals and several satellite clinics. Last year, Blessing Hospital outgrew its network defenses. It had security measures in place to protect clinical and patient data but still fell prey to back-door malicious code intrusions and network attacks.

“Our previous IPS solution, an open-source application, was very difficult to manage and not always reliable,” said Kevin Rainey, senior network administrator at Blessing Hospital. “It was very difficult to get updates, and we had issues with our sensor failing periodically. We would have to monitor every day, and constantly watch the alerts and logs to see if it was functioning correctly.”

The network defenses also had limited logging and reporting capabilities. Needless to say, meeting HIPAA and payment card industry requirements was difficult. To top it off, Blessing Hospital was on the verge of rolling out a new electronic medical records application. It needed a wholly different wireless network infrastructure.

Enter Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO) Blessing Hospital already used some of the company’s equipment and turned to the equipment maker for an upgrade. Blessing Hospital ended up replacing the older Cisco PIX firewalls and third-party IPS solution with Cisco ASA 5500 Series IPS Edition Adaptive Security Appliances with integrated IPS modules.

“We were able to basically copy and paste our configurations from the Cisco PIX firewalls into the ASA platforms,” Rainey said. “The IPS configuration was also very smooth. We ran it in monitoring mode initially, and then fully implemented it inline after a few weeks. We’ve had absolutely no issues with it since.”

Blessing Hospital opted for a number of Cisco solutions that resulted in greater network security, secure VPN connectivity and more. Above all, Blessing Hospital is better equipped to take care of its patients.

“The ability to use wireless computers in patient rooms really benefits our nurses,” Rainey said. “They don’t have to jot down notes or constantly walk back and forth to a central nurse station to access or enter information. They can do everything right at the bedside.”

Blessing Hospital now is piloting the Cisco LAN Management Suite and Cisco Security Manager to streamline network administration, policy management and regulatory compliance.

Other Vendors’ Bedside Manner

Alcatel-Lucent (ALU) in July launched LifeStat Remote Monitoring and Health Management for Canada’s SaskTel. The service records and sends daily blood glucose and blood pressure readings from clients to their caregivers or doctors. SaskTel is selling LifeStat to consumers and health care providers alike, while Alcatel-Lucent is offering the platform to its customers outside of Canada under the name Alcatel-Lucent Health and Wellness Application. Future LifeStat applications will include monitoring and reporting for chronic illnesses such as congestive heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and asthma.

Nortel Networks (NT) this year installed its contact center platform for excellentRx, a medication management support center that caters to nurses, pharmacists and caregivers.

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Cisco Provides a ‘Blessing’ Undisguised
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AT&T, Covisint, Microsoft Roll out eHealth Platform
Nortel Announces Multiple New Healthcare Customers

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