industry sector

HEALTHCARE

assyst – THE PRESCRIPTION FOR SERVICE

IMPROVEMENT AT PARKVIEW HEALTH SYSTEM

case study:
PARKVIEW HEALTH

Discover how
assyst by Axios Axios Systems leads Parkview Health to ITIL
Systems enabled
Parkview Health A growing organization with an increasingly under-resourced help desk in place, Parkview Health System
to lead IT trends
recognized the need for a consolidated solution to efficiently and effectively manage its IT infrastructure. As
in its industry with
part of its “Project Embracing Transformation” initiative, Parkview Health implemented assyst, launching the
a modern ITIL-
based IT Service organization on the ITIL Best Practices path to align people, processes and technology.
Management
solution. The Background
Striving to become northeast Indiana’s leading provider of healthcare services, Parkview Health System began its
journey in 1878 with the foundation of its first hospital. Over 125 years later, the organization is one of the largest
employers in Allen County, Indiana, employing over 6,000 full-time and part-time workers within seven hospitals, a
network of healthcare providers, a health division, a physician medical group and a behavioral health group.

As Parkview Health has grown, so has the challenge to meet its community’s need for quality cost-effective care.
In order to meet this challenge, Parkview Health sought help from IT. In May 2004, the organization activated
“Project Embracing Technology.” Project ET is a term that represents Parkview’s use of patient-centered
information technology to help those in a clinical setting deliver the highest quality patient care in the most efficient
and effective manner.

“Project Embracing Technology”

Project ET’s purpose is to integrate several aspects of patient care delivery, including radiology, laboratory,
pharmacy and nursing into one interdisciplinary electronic solution to improve quality by minimizing errors such
as duplicate charting, patient numbers and illegible handwriting to enhance patient safety. The system also makes
patient information more accessible to physicians and clinicians who provide care by allowing them to document
information one time and have it available for others to access conveniently and securely from any computer
connected to the Parkview Health network.

The basic platform of Project ET is a set of integrated tools that work together
to enhance all aspects of a patient’s lifetime medical record. The
information entered into various systems is used to help improve
patient outcomes and quality of care. This process affirms
that Parkview Health is on track with new trends and
expectations in the U.S. healthcare industry.

According to the Most Wired Survey and

Benchmarking study completed by Hospitals
& Health Networks, The American Hospital
Association’s (AHA) magazine, Parkview
Health earned recognition in 2005 and 2006
as being among the 100 “Most Wired”
hospitals as well as among the 25 “Most
Wireless” hospitals in the U.S.

over
the solution was assyst
case study :
PARKVIEW HEALTH
“Now, because of the
workflows in assyst, we are
getting better, more detailed
information from the client.”
“ We decided to use the ITIL Best Practices processes to help us develop a structured
Service Desk. Axios led us to ITIL – not the other way around.
The study emphasized that hospitals, like Parkview Health, leading the way in IT, use a wider
array of IT tools to address quality, conduct a larger percentage of clinical transactions via
IT, and have more physicians entering orders themselves. These combined factors ultimately
produce better outcomes and help hospitals achieve key goals, including safety and quality
objectives.
The Challenge
Prior to the advent of Project ET, several issues arose which contributed to Parkview Health’s
search for an ITSM tool to improve its Incident Management process.
“To make enhancements to the Help Desk tool, the entire system needed to be taken down.
We were running an old version that the vendor no longer supported. This caused a lot of
concern,” cited Jenny Gunkel, Support Center Information Services Supervisor.
In the first weeks, days and even hours of Project ET’s implementation, Parkview’s small Help
Desk was bombarded with calls. With the growth in the company, the number of support staff
increased as did the need for a larger Service Desk solution that could scale to meet Parkview’s
growing needs.
“We were completely unable to develop a new Service Desk if we did not opt for an upgrade,”
noted Ron Double, Parkview’s Director of Technology and Information Services.
With the tool used prior to assyst, Parkview Health could not run reports nor retrieve
information entered. “There was no way of managing what information you had. It was a
black hole – you put stuff in and nothing came out,” said Double.
“I was looking for something that I could pull reports from and then use to identify trends. I
wanted to be able to do that while in the application,” said Gunkel. “I also wanted to include
some troubleshooting steps within the application so the support staff could try to solve the
problems and we could achieve a higher first call resolution from the tool itself.”
The selection process criteria contained three principle requirements. First, the solution
needed to have the ability to integrate with current systems used throughout Parkview Health.
Second, the Service Desk wanted to get its Asset Management tied into trouble tickets, so it
could report by device on what kind of problems they were experiencing. Third, it needed to
implement a more efficient Incident Management process. It was essential for the new Service
Desk to have the ability to track calls, understand where the calls were going, and be able to
identify trends.
Parkview met with multiple vendors and viewed the various products and options available in
the market. Ultimately, assyst was chosen because it was designed from inception around
the ITIL Best Practice philosophy. assyst provided a consistent set of IT Service Management
guidelines and had an open interface to integrate with other systems.
“
The Solution
Benefits
Parkview uses to support the entire health organization. It is the primary tool used by the Service Desk for
Incident Management, call tracking, and reporting. The data in the system is fed from an estimated user base
of 11,000 individuals. Every user calls into the Service Desk; the Service Desk then logs and tracks the calls.
Glenn Hall, Customer Services Manager notes, “Now, because of the workflows in assyst, we are getting Effective and consistent
Best Practice IT processes
better, more detailed information from the client. In turn, when a call needs to be escalated into the second
or third level support, better information is passed along. Also, by capturing higher quality information, if
the issues arise again, we can provide better support to the client.” Improved management
information available
“We wanted to develop an Incident Management process that we could follow all the way through. Instead
of dealing with pieces of a process, we decided to use the ITIL Best Practices processes to help us develop a Reduced Incident handling
structured Service Desk. Axios led us to ITIL – not the other way around,” adds Ron Double. “One of the time
things we really liked was that everything started in the Service Desk and ended in the Service Desk. assyst
forces you to close the loop.”
Raised first-level resolution
rates
As Support Center Supervisor, Jenny Gunkel uses assyst to run reports. On a monthly basis, she tracks
first call resolution. Additionally, Gunkel reviews a report that indicates how many calls were logged by the
Service Desk versus their telephone reports and then she can determine if there are any differences. She also Simplified and controlled
uses assyst to create comparison reports on trend analysis. Changes
“The reports are wonderful and easy to use,” remarks Gunkel. “We didn’t do reports before assyst. Even if
it’s entered in the assyst event monitor, I run some type of report every day.”
Using the reports, Parkview has been able to identify a skill set profile and training requirements needed for
call center employees. As a result, the more knowledgeable staff has been able to reduce Incident handling
times and raise the first level resolution rate, ultimately improving both first and second level support teams.
“Due to assyst, we are better able to focus on service improvement areas, such as first call resolution and
call wait times,” explains Double. “With the Project ET transformation that we have gone through, our
department is now the support hub for everything that goes on in the organization. IT is now considered
a part of the delivery of patient care. We deal specifically with the integration of systems. We are not only
support; rather, we have part in everything from the technologies, the applications and the implementation
onto support. We are responsible for all the pieces that now include IT that we may not have been
responsible for in the past.”
In addition to Incident Management, Parkview Health has implemented Change Management. By
establishing the Service Desk as the single point of contact, it has been able to improve customer service
provided to the client as well as simplify and control Changes made within the IS organization. Parkview
Health is now able to accurately monitor who submitted a Change, who completed the Change, or at least
review the status of a Change.
“Since implementing assyst, we have a lot more departments using us as their initial contact,” adds
Gunkel. “Overall, for the money and what you got in return, assyst provided the best value to our
organization. We got all the pieces we needed in one tool. Instead of dealing with pieces of a process, Axios
led us to ITIL’s Best Practices framework which has helped us to develop a fully structured process.”
more
 case study:
The Future
PARKVIEW HEALTH

The Future of ITSM at Parkview Health

As Parkview Health continues to grow as an organization so too does its need to implement other processes
included in the ITIL framework. Along with a strategy to continually improve existing Incident and Change
Management processes, Parkview Health plans to implement Problem Management next, followed by Asset
and Configuration Management.

Glenn Hall remarks, “We are looking to continually develop our Service Desk and assyst is one tool
that we are using to help us. Since we are in constant change mode in terms of operational and
procedural aspects of the organization, we now have to figure out how to make all of those functions
work for us. I think assyst can do a whole lot more than what we are utilizing it for, and there are a
lot of things I’d like to see happen with the solution, primarily with Asset & Configuration
Management and Problem Management. Due to the increase in our client base, the equipment base
has nearly doubled since implementing assyst. Deploying these new processes will better manage
our maintenance costs.”

"We were impressed by the understanding of our business needs

demonstrated by Axios and found that assyst is the ideal tool to
meet our requirements."

"What really clinched the business for Axios was the

professionalism of its consultants"

"We chose assyst based on our long term objectives, which were
to implement ITIL and a solution that would support this."

assyst@ax i o s s y s t e m s .c o m
w w w . a xiossystems.com