Bridgepoint Health

Success Story

To give its users secure and fast access to critical information, Bridgepoint Health worked with Novell consultants to integrate its applications into a single portal. Now users have identity-based access to data, regardless of location.

Overview

Bridgepoint Health is Canada's largest and most extensive integrated health care organization for specialized complex care services - complex rehabilitation, complex care, long-term care, and community-based care. The organization has 1,200 employees.

Challenge

In any healthcare organization, timely, secure access to data is critical to provide efficient patient care. With many disparate systems, physicians and staff at Bridgepoint Health often had to remember many different user names and passwords to access clinical applications.

Bridgepoint Health wanted to make its technology solutions transparent to users and quickly get the right information in the hands of the right people when they need it. The organization also wanted to extend convenient access to its remote users whether working from another office, a patient's home or while traveling.

Novell solution

"We reviewed the market, but Novell came to us with a comprehensive suite of products. We didn't have to look elsewhere to get a complete solution."

"Our experience with Novell Consulting has been outstanding. They have a high degree of professionalism and really know the healthcare industry. They even delivered everything on time and within budget which is unusual in IT and very refreshing."

Steve Banyai
CIO
Bridgepoint Health

Bridgepoint Health evaluated several healthcare portal vendors before selecting a Novell identity and access management solution consisting of Novell® exteNdTM, Novell eDirectoryTM, Novell Identity Manager, Novell iChain® and Novell SecureLogin.

"We reviewed the market, but Novell came to us with a comprehensive suite of products," said Steve Banyai, CIO at Bridgepoint Health. "We didn't have to look elsewhere to get a complete solution."

Bridgepoint engaged Novell Consulting® to work with its physicians, nurses and staff in order to define the organization's business needs and functional requirements for the MyBridgepoint Portal.

"Our experience with Novell Consulting has been outstanding," said Banyai. "They have a high degree of professionalism and really know the healthcare industry. They even delivered everything on time and within budget which is unusual in IT and very refreshing."

Novell consultants worked with Bridgepoint to integrate its disparate applications into a single portal using Novell exteNd. A Novell identity and access management solution combining eDirectory, Identity Manager, SecureLogin and iChain provides secure, identity-based access to the new MyBridgepoint portal, giving users fast access to a number of applications such as hospital administration, finance, calendars and e-mail.

MEDITECH is Bridgepoint's Hospital Information Systems partner, providing both clinical and business solution software. Bridgepoint is also a beta site for MEDITECH's new Human Resources suite which will serve as its authoritative source of user identity information to assign badges, phones and application access.

"Novell stood out as the market leader in identity and access management," said Marc Lamoureux, IT Director at Bridgepoint Health. "Having centralized management of user identities is only possible with our Novell solutions. Very few enterprises have achieved single sign-on and we're working with Novell to deliver it."

With an identity-based portal, Bridgepoint can now provide personalized views of information to users, based on their roles and responsibilities. A single user ID and password for each employee speeds access and has also significantly reduced password-related helpdesk calls.

"At the end of the day, we're a hospital and technology should not be daunting for people who are hands-on patient care givers," said Banyai. "A good portal makes it easy to get the right information into the hands of the right people, when they need it, so they can make the right clinical decisions."

Remote users now have access to the portal from any standard Web browser. This will be particularly beneficial for the hospital's home health business where the majority of patient care providers give off-site patient care.

"The portal we have developed with Novell exteNd will be our one-stop shop for access to information," said Banyai. "The portal will soon be the primary interface to access applications for nearly 95 percent of our users."

By implementing a portal and removing multiple points of access, Bridgepoint has improved the overall security of its information. Using Novell Audit, Bridgepoint can support compliance with privacy regulations with the ability to track access to data based on user identity.

Bridgepoint also relies on Novell ZENworks® for desktop management. The IT team can distribute applications to workstations throughout the hospital without every leaving their desks.

"Without Novell ZENworks, we would be doubling our implementation hours on every project," said Lamoureux.

Results

With Novell solutions, Bridgepoint created a new portal that has simplified access to applications and gives users access to critical information nearly 90 percent faster. By giving users a single user ID and password, Bridgepoint has reduced password-related helpdesk calls by 80 percent.

Novell ZENworks makes efficient use of the hospital's IT staff and allows the organization to get more done with the same level of resources. Without a cumbersome application delivery process, the IT staff can easily keep its enterprise up to date.

"Having a single portal has reduced the complexities of managing and accessing our applications," said Banyai. "With Novell, we have delivered on our strategy to provide information in a consolidated, efficient and secure manner."