Dell Works With Red Hat, Intel and VMware To Launch Center of Excellence for Hospitals Using Epic EHR Software

New Linux-based deployment option designed to provide more flexibility, while delivering operational efficiency for EHR customers

·         Open platform sets stage for improved interoperability through industry standards

NEW ORLEANS, March 4, 2013 – Dell has joined forces with Red Hat, Intel and VMware to open a dedicated center where hospitals can test and deploy a new option for running Epic Systems’ electronic health records (EHR) software on Red Hat Enterprise Linux. The DRIVE (Dell, Red Hat, Intel and VMware for Epic) Center of Excellence is located near the EHR vendor’s Verona, Wis., headquarters.

 

Last year, Epic added Red Hat Enterprise Linux to its list of target platforms. Until then, the software exclusively ran on AIX and other UNIX servers. With the potential lower total cost of ownership of running the software on Dell Intel x86 servers, this combination could be a cost-effective option for hospitals.

At the DRIVE Center of Excellence, hospitals can test their applications on a variety of Dell server and storage options, test configurations for end-user computing, perform cross-functional testing of other optimized solutions such as help desk services and disaster recovery, and interact with all the primary third parties involved in a Linux deployment.

A legacy of expertise

Dell and the other companies in this effort each have a strong history in supporting open standards and migrating customers from complex proprietary environments. In addition to hardware, Dell provides a full range of professional services and support for every stage of EHR deployment backed by technical and clinical experts with deep expertise in working with a variety of EHR vendors.

VMware vSphere® is the leading KLAS-rated x86 virtualization platform in healthcare. vSphere provides hospitals with an industry proven virtualization platform for delivering powerful solutions from the point of care to the hospital’s datacenter.

Red Hat will provide hospitals with the premium support services they need to meet the 24×7 demands placed on an EHR system. As the world’s leading open source platform for enterprises, Red Hat Enterprise Linux offers healthcare customers a standards-based, cost-effective yet highly flexible and powerful solution.

St. Joseph’s Hospital Health Center

More small- to mid-size hospitals are using Linux to run key applications as they see the benefits of using open source versus proprietary platforms, including cost savings and improved interoperability.

St. Joseph’s Hospital Health Center, a 431-bed hospital and health system in Syracuse, N.Y., turned to the DRIVE team for help in implementing Epic on Linux as part of a 16-month conversion of the hospital’s EHR system. Working closely with both the hospital and Epic, the companies are making the best use of St. Joseph’s current infrastructure and resources to build a test and training environment as well as preparing to deploy the full production system. In addition to training and planning assistance, the DRIVE team will provide ongoing support to fine-tune the system for optimal performance.

“Using VMware and Red Hat Enterprise Linux to run Epic’s database on Dell’s x86 servers will not only significantly reduce hardware costs, but also will simplify our environment and allow our IT staff to focus on delivering the best user experience for our clinicians,” said Chris Snow, manager of IT systems engineering for St. Joseph Hospital Health Center. “We are confident that Dell and its partners have the deep experience required for this type of complex implementation.”

 

   

Categories