Nick Volosin

The Citrix Health Care Solution

From its founding, Alameda Health System’s (AHS) mission has been, “caring, healing, teaching and serving all,” in its community. That means investing in the technology needed to deliver the best healthcare possible. AHS’s Information Technology department is deploying the Citrix Workspace Suite as the solution that allows doctors and nurses at any AHS location to access patient EHRs from any of its other sites.

When AHS recently expanded to include long serving community hospitals Alameda Hospital and San Leandro Hospital, and it was faced with the unique challenge of supporting three different electronic health record (EHR) systems. By joining AHS, Alameda Hospital and San Leandro Hospital patients would be utilizing services offered at the system’s other East Bay locations.

Having easy access to the multiple EHRs is essential so that staff at all of the facilities could communicate effectively and deliver the highest quality care. For example, a San Leandro Hospital patient could be referred for specialized care at AHS’s flagship hospital, Highland Hospital. Through this technology, a Highland doctor could now quickly and seamlessly access medical records for that San Leandro patient using any device enabled with its client for Citrix Workspace Suite, Citrix Receiver.

Deploying Citrix doesn’t just solve the EHR issue; it also allows AHS to be agile in updating applications. With the rollout of many Meaningful Use application upgrades and ICD-10 implementation this fall, health care organizations will need to quickly and nimbly institute updates as they come. Since Citrix is maintained at a central location, IT can manage updates centrally, as opposed to installing updates on thousands of computers throughout AHS. This saves time and money, and ensures consistent user application experience.

Another benefit Citrix brings to AHS is the ability to give professionals easy access to information securely on any device. Since the data is housed centrally rather than stored at the user endpoint platform, providers can choose to use their own devices, such as MacBooks, iPads or Android hardware, while treating patients in a data-secure manner through the secure Citrix Receiver client.

“Deploying Citrix doesn't just solve the EHR issue; it also allows us to be agile in updating applications”

Each AHS user has a self-contained, personalized virtual experience allowing them to effortlessly pick up where they left off using any Citrix-enabled device. If a nurse needs to leave their nursing unit station to visit the imaging lab, their application will be waiting for them when they authenticate into a Citrix-enabled device at the imaging lab. With mobility being a necessity in health care going forward, AHS is equipping Citrix-enabled workstations in each room of its 169-bed Acute Care Tower, opening in 2016.

As technology continues to provide opportunities for organizations to work smarter, it’s important that health care providers keep pace by creating an IT strategy that allows for both security and mobility. Using Citrix’s FlexCast technology means that doctors and nurses spend less time finding records and paperwork and more time treating patients. Citrix Workspace Suite is ensuring that AHS is providing the best tools for its clinicians so that they can continue to serve their community with world-class patient-centered care.