Nearly ten years ago, the hospital decided to begin virtualizing its applications to gain advantages from streamlining equipment and reducing maintenance costs. All operations are centralized on a server, making it easy to manage the IT equipment: the system, applications and security tools can be automatically and regularly updated across all workstations at the push of a button. “Traditional PCs run up high maintenance and operating costs even though they are underutilized in terms of capacity. We don‘t need huge processing power at each workstation. By virtualizing both the applications and the thin clients, we have improved efficiency and are making both direct and indirect savings”, says Sébastien Wirtz, IT Systems and Support Manager for the Verdun-Saint Mihiel Hospital Complex.

A thin-client solution tailor-made for the healthcare sector

Eighteen months ago, the Verdun-Saint Mihiel Hospital Complex began using hardware from IGEL Technology, the German thin-client leader, which had just launched operations in France. Following a conclusive test phase, the hospital complex decided to equip its medical and administrative staff with UD3-LX thin clients. Previously, none of the terminals used at the hospital complex had been fully satisfactory. IGEL Technology was able to demonstrate that it fully understood the needs of the healthcare sector, which impressed the customer. The manufacturer has a wealth of experience in this field and was able to very quickly adapt its proposal. IGEL‘s hardware solutions are compatible with many devices, in particular magnetic card readers, such as those able to read the Carte Vitale health insurance card – an essential requirement for all healthcare professionals.

This feature was one of the benefits that caught the IT department‘s eye at the hospital complex. “There are a lot of products out there on the market, but it is rare to find solutions that take your particular issues that well into account. Carte Vitale readers can sometimes lead to technical restrictions due to incompatibility issues, but we couldn‘t allow this to be a sticking point”, explains Sébastien Wirtz. “The IGEL solution allows us to read the cards without any problems.”

The IGEL solution therefore works alongside the existing IT equipment at the Verdun Hospital Complex and is compatible with all the IT equipment at the Saint-Mihiel Hospital with which the Verdun Hospital Complex has recently merged. In total, more than 80 workstations have been installed on site. They are used both by medical staff for issuing prescriptions, examining patient records and for the analysis of results, and by management teams for patient and hospital staff administration purposes.

Simplified administration and faster execution: benefits that make a big difference IGEL thin clients provide the Verdun-Saint Mihiel Hospital Complex with additional benefits, such as the integrated administration console and fast terminals. “The key benefit of the thin clients from IGEL Technology is how easy they are to administrate. The management tool is very powerful and sophisticated yet easy to use”, explains Sébastien Wirtz.

The integrated Universal Management Suite (UMS) software is a powerful administration platform allowing all installed devices to be managed easily, efficiently and remotely: automatic configuration, parameter adjustment, real-time software support, diagnostics, troubleshooting, etc. The IT Manager can use the UMS interface to access numerous functions which make administration quicker and easier. In addition, all patient data is stored on the server meaning that there are no confidentiality risks if hardware is stolen.

IGEL‘s thin client solutions are currently working alongside terminals from a rival manufacturer. “If you compare the two solutions, it‘s clear that the IGEL solution is faster at executing the same operations”, confirms Sébastien Wirtz.

“The Verdun Saint-Mihiel Hospital Complex was one of our first customers in the French hospital sector. The solution implemented showcases what we can do and has opened up doors for us in this very specific market”, concludes Thomas Pernodet, Regional Sales Manager at IGEL Technology.