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Marion General Hospital
Marion, IN
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JJWild delivers to plan at Marion General
Marion General Hospital values the role that information systems play in delivering excellence in healthcare. It developed a strategic information systems plan in the early 1990s that called for technology upgrades, increased efficiency, cost control, and improved patient care. Today, that plan is being enhanced with Healthcare Information System (HCIS) software from MEDITECH, implementation and optimization consulting services from JJWild, and HP servers and storage.
Meet and exceed customer expectations
In July 2000, Marion General appointed Rinn Evans Chief Information Officer. The hospital had just made the decision to consolidate and reduce the number of HCIS vendors with which it dealt. Evans’ first task was to implement the consolidation plan.
An 11-year healthcare administration veteran, Evans emphasized that the hospital’s overall mission is to “meet and exceed customer expectations. That’s why we are trying to make sure that we have the correct infrastructure and systems to build on. We wanted to consolidate systems and enhance functionality with products that worked together, instead of through interfaces,” he said. “We need to be able to meet new regulations as they are mandated and take advantage of new technologies as they become available.”
Industry recognition
Marion General’s approach seems to be working. For three years in a row, Hospitals & Health Networks, the journal of the American Hospital Association, recognized it as one of the 100-most-wired hospitals and healthcare systems in the United States. Evans said that the recognition received in 2001, 2002, and 2003 “is a confirmation that we are headed in the right direction. Marion General is blessed with excellent leadership and strategic plans that make awards like this possible.”
MEDITECH rises to the top
When the vendor consolidation project began, Marion General had four different vendors supplying its HCIS applications. The hospital wanted to reduce that to just one HCIS and one PACS vendor.
Evans described the eventual choice of the MEDITECH HCIS as unexpected. “We knew we wanted to work with an industry leader. We started out looking at what we considered to be the top six vendors. First we looked at functionality and then we looked at cost. To our surprise, MEDITECH was the most cost-effective. In fact, there was a considerable price difference between MEDITECH and the vendor we assumed might be our choice. So we dug deeper.”
Evans and his team consulted industry research databases to sample customer install-and-support perceptions. “MEDITECH was among the best,” he reported. “We found that MEDITECH’s delivery-to-go-live time was one of the shortest. In other words, they met their deadlines. Once we considered the number of satisfied customers, the breadth and depth of modules, and the overall cost, MEDITECH was alone at the top.”
In June 2002, Marion General signed an agreement with MEDITECH for a full healthcare information system running on HP servers and storage. “One of my mantras is standardization,” said Evans. “When I started looking at our hardware requirements, there were three or four server manufacturers in the running. We already had quite a bit of HP equipment and I’ve had good experience with it in the past so we chose it as our standard platform.”
JJWild – the preferred provider
For the implementation of the HCIS, JJWild stood out as MEDITECH’s preferred solutions provider. “We were trying to eliminate the number of vendors we had to work with,” said Evans, “and it was important to use a company that MEDITECH trusted. The strength of the MEDITECH-JJWild relationship impressed us, as did the breadth and depth of JJWild’s technical and consulting service offerings.
“We found that JJWild had a great combination of IT competence and MEDITECH familiarity. They are easy to work with and -- when issues have arisen -- we’ve been able to solve the problems together. I don’t think there is a better choice.”
JJWild assisted Marion General in the selection, purchase, and installation of the HP servers, HP EVA SAN storage, Qualstar tape libraries, and an enterprise-wide, automated fax-server system. Evans reported that JJWild “installed all the MEDITECH software and set up all the servers in our data center. Our Storage Area Network (SAN) is a huge and important addition to our infrastructure. JJWild made it happen with installation and training. At the same time, with their help, we’ve gained more of a comfort level around disaster preparedness.”
The JJWild team also provided implementation and training on Materials Management hand-held data-collection devices, as well as label and wristband functionality for enhanced patient safety.
Evans related that “since installing MEDITECH, we’ve been able to reduce our IS headcount by four FTEs. Today, the hospital’s 9-member IS staff manages an overall infrastructure that includes 65 servers, 600 PCs and laptops, and 120 printers interconnected through a Cisco Gigabit network.
For Rinn Evans, it comes down to having a plan and working it. At the same time, he understands the need for flexibility. He cited his management’s willingness to allow him the freedom to adapt to changing circumstances. And he praised JJWild’s ability to adapt to change as well. “The team is very easy to work with. They do what they say they’re going to do and they deliver cost-competitive solutions on time. I give them a high score.”
Marion General Hospital
From a modest beginning in 1902 in a remodeled frame house in Marion, Indiana, Marion General Hospital has grown into a sprawling 17-acre campus with 10 buildings in three towns with 172 acute-care beds and 20 nursery beds. Marion General is a tax-exempt hospital that features a wide variety of inpatient and outpatient services. With more than 100 physicians across multiple specialties and a dedicated, qualified, and professional staff of more than 1,200, Marion General is one of the leading healthcare providers in central Indiana.
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