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About the Customer

Since 1953, the Diagnostic Clinic has been dedicated to providing high quality healthcare through highly skilled staff and a commitment to strong patient-physicians relationships.  The physicians in the Diagnostic Clinic are all board certified in internal medicine, which deals with diagnosis and treatment of diseases of internal organs, such as the heart, lungs, digestive system, and kidneys.

Northeast Georgia Diagnostic Clinic

"We researched several tools for single sign on and application delivery, but when CentriNet showed us the Citrix/Smart Card/Thin Client solution, it was exactly what we were looking for.  Today our nurses and physicians carry a simple smart card, which allows them access to any machine in our facility, without having to manually log in."

"What's more, their applications and workloads 'follow' them from machine to machine, so login times are dramatically reduced.  The CentriNet Consulting Services team was able to make our applications work seamlessly in this new environment, and management of the applications is now completely centralized."

James Smith, IT Director

Northeast Georgia Diagnostic Clinic

Key Benefits of CentriNet's Deployment of Citrix SmoothRoaming^TM

• Ensured the security and confidentiality of patient records and other critical data
• Reduced the logon/logoff process to mere seconds - from 2-3 minutes to just 9-10 seconds, leaving more time for the patient interaction
• Thin-client architecture streamlines system administration time and applications licensing/version control costs
• Improved the efficiency and productivity of the hospital and its staff

The Challenge

In the fast-paced atmosphere of the hospital, doctors and nurses are constantly jumping on and off various computer workstations throughout the facility to retrieve and update patient information, sometimes as often as 40 times each day. But with no time to log off each time they leave the computer to visit with a patient or attend to another task, users would often walk away from their workstations without disconnecting – leaving them open to major security risks. With HIPAA and other security requirements growing more stringent each day, the hospital needed to find a way to ensure the privacy and confidentiality of the information being accessed. At the same time, it was critical not to bog down the hospital’s doctors and nurses with a lengthy logon/logoff process that required multiple passwords and various steps.

The Solution

After reviewing the hospital’s specific challenges and needs, CentriNet spearheaded the development of a solution designed to automate the process of connecting users to the information they needed – and disconnecting them quickly when their session was complete.

At the heart of the solution was the Citrix Xenapp Platinum Product, featuring SmoothRoaming and Hot Desktop.  Citrix delivers functionality to any kind of terminal (thin client, laptop, Cart on Wheels, desktop, etc.), while also allowing for a single sign-on (Password Manager) and VPN security with the Access Gateway,

The Citrix solution is extended through a thin-client interface at each workstation.  Data and information is stored on a central server, and accessed directly through the thin client, which also offers an integrated smart card reader and easy-to-use management tools.  In addition, CentriNet equipped the hospital with Gemalto smart cards and readers to provide universal access for users at any workstation, from any location within the facility.  This created a "Hot Desktop" functionality that allows for instant logon/logoff capability, with the card adding an additional layer of physical authentication and security.

The Benefits

Now, with the CentriNet Solution in place, each doctor or nurse has the ability to log in once at the beginning of their shift, and work throughout the day by inserting their Gemalto smart cards into the readers and/or thing client stations anywhere in the facility.  As soon as the hospital practitioner removes the card, the system ends the current session instantly and enters a "disconnected state."  This automated disconnect process guarantees the security of each workstation, ensuring that users are logged off 100% of the time.  By re-inserting the card, a hospital practitioner is able to resume working from where they left off.

Armed with this innovative solution, doctors and nurses have now improved efficiency and increased productivity on a variety of levels.  By altering the lengthy login process from an average of 2-3 minutes to a time of merely 9-10 seconds, the hospital's practitioners are now able to spend more time with patients.  In addition, with instant access to their last open session, the hospital's practitioners can easily walk away from a workstation to be with a patient, then return and pick up exactly where they last left off.

"Our team brought deep Citrix expertise to the project, with an average of more than ten years experience as well as certification as a Citrix Platinum Solutions Advisor," said Keith Paschall, President of CentriNet.  "Ultimately, we were able to seamlessly and successfully integrate a number of different technologies into a single, cohesive solution that effectively addressed the client's needs - while delivering the ease of use its end users demanded."

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