Vee Three ShowCase
CommunityServer used by Heart of TX Council of Govts.
"HOTCOG has been using Community Server2007 as a tool for a little over a year now. It is similar to NING, but a little more expanded (and a little more costly). CS is the backbone of MySpace, Microsoft, and many other high volume sites. We developed a Regional Preparedness website and fielded it, and surprisingly, it really took off. It(CommunityServer) is one of the best tools for getting others involved and disseminating information across a large area. We are currently revamping our site to add additional functionality, so it should be back up soon.
If anyone is interested in learning more about implementing a community service to their operation, let me know and I might be able to point you in the right direction. Vi3 Technologies is our software developer we have partnered with in obtaining CommunityServer, and assisting us with upgrades.
I think this will be an excellent tool for use and hopefully we'll see it take off. It will also allow a more personal feel between COGs as we can interact more freely than before."
Boyce Wilson, EMT-B
HealthStream's Insight into Action
Interactive Media Holdings, Ltd.-www.classscene.com
Kiwanis International
Kiwanis International, Indianapolis, IN; http://community.kiwanisone.org/
Microvellum Corporation
Vi3 acts in the role of outsourced technical support for Community Server for Microvellum.
Network Architecture, Integration, Implementation and Remote Management
Waco Bone and Joint Clinic
Kraig Turpen, clinic administrator for Waco Bone and Joint Clinic, a well established orthopedic medical practice in the heart of Waco, Texas, had a mission critical situation. A Texas thunderstorm with high voltage electric lightning charges, had passed through the city overnight, and on the following Monday morning in July, 2007, he came to the clinic offices to find that the clinic operations server and many of his local area network workstations had been “fried” by several brown-out power surges caused by the electrical storm. The clinic’s operation is dependent on the electronic practice mangement system run on their servers. Waco Bone and Joint utilizes Lytec® medical software for its patient care records. Lytec® is owned by McKesson Pharmaceuticals. Earlier in 2007, Turpen had been visited by representatives of Vi3 Technologies, offering their managed services for outsourced IT. What Kraig needed right then and there, however, was immediate service. WBJC needed to be “rescued”, immediately.
Vi3 was contacted that morning, before 9:00am. The technicians found out the mission critical nature of the situation and immediately sprang into action. By midday, Vi3 had deployed a replacement server for WBJC, and transferred the relevant practice management data to the new server…so that operations of the clinic could resume in a reasonable time frame.
Underwood Home Health Services
Underwood Home Health Services--rural home health agencies need service for their state-of-the-art Windows network technology too
Anita Underwood opened her burgeoning home health agency in Hillsboro, TX over two and a half years ago, with a partner. The agency has grown steadily since 2005. As happens in some partnerships, in late 2007, due to some irreconcilable issues, her partnership dissolved. One problem in the dissolution was that the former partner had dealt with all the agency’s IT management and technical support. With an active client base of well over 200 clients, the staff of 8 visiting nurses and four office personnel stays in constant activity, utilizing their WAN to activate client Medicare/Medicaid billing, and maintaining up to date patient records through practice management software applications. Their task is to work double duty, assuring the best most responsive home health care service is provided, when the patient needs it. When the Wide Area Network went down due to internet connectivity issues, Anita was in panic mode. The life and breath of the agency was hanging in the balance. Her friend Brandon Armstrong was aware of Vi3’s responsive services, and immediately contacted Vi3 to assist. Vi3 once again to the rescue, bringing Anita’s agency back online and functional within a day.
Waco Orthopedic Clinic, 6600 Fish Pond Road, Waco
Mark Skains, clinic administrator, had only been at Waco Orthopedic for just over a year having spent over 20 years as an administrator in both hospital and clinical settings all over the US. The Fish Pond Medical Group (owners of the building the clinic occupies -Fish Pond Medical Center) announced that there would be a change. Since 1999, the clinic’s IT needs had been served by the building ownership, enabling them access to an Exchange Server (albeit a Windows 2000 server with Exchange 2000) for email and also WOC depended on Fish Pond Medical for internet access. The building owners also provided some limited technical support including one onsite technician who could be called and brought onsite for repairs in a somewhat reasonable period of time for Waco Ortho and four other unrelated medical practices which were also building inhabitants. When the owners of the building changed, and the services provided were vanishing, except the use of the Windows2000 /Exchange Server , Skains realized his days were numbered, until his technology issues became mission critical, causing him unnecessary headaches managing a first class , 5 physician, market leading Orthopedic Medical Practice in the Waco, TX metro area, population 210,000.
Skains wanted something more in reference to his practice’s planned upgrade to up-to-date digital technological capabilities, especially since the clinic’s partner/ physicians, who are relatively sophisticated technology users themselves, were contemplating acquisition of a high end digital imaging device provided for MRI-X-rays. In fact, the doctors wanted not only their own network, and their own Exchange Server, with up to date Outlook 2007 scheduling capabilities, but also had a vision for the utilization of large flat screen LCD screens installed in every patient room, so that they show the patient the extent of the injury on the screen and provide in depth consultation to show what their surgery would “repair”. The current IT vendor situation was not capable of handling what they envisioned.
Enter Vi3 Technologies…Microsoft Certified Partner...
Skains contacted Vi3, inquiring about their availability to assist him in planning and implementing the project being discussed by the clinic’s partner physicians, all leading orthopedic surgeons in Waco.
Beginning in late summer 2007, Vi3 worked with Skains to develop extensive requirements, based on the necessary throughput and computing capacities required by the highly feature rich, browser based state of the art Stryker Medical digital imaging program that they were procuring. Vi3 developed a statement of work, and an implementation plan and training process. Vi3 developed these plans and scoped the project in the months of August and September 2007. Two phases were planned.
o Phase One: Build a new high capacity Local Area Network from the server room and internet access---from the bottom up.
Initially, the network was installed and configured, including the Exchange 2007 Server. Using Vi3’s Gold Team reseller status with Dell, Inc., Vi3 procured Dell’s 1900 series medium business servers, 21” monitors and Dell Vostro 200 line of small form factor workstations were installed. Vi3 also placed a state of the art, cost effective Sonic Wall TZ-190 firewall at the front of the new network. The security partner for Vi3 is Total Security Sales. The cabling was done by Waco based LevelOne Technology, a Vi3 partner. The network utilized APC CAT6 high capacity cabling with 10GHz standard throughput. This was deemed expedient in order to accommodate the high volume of digital images being photographed and passed through the eventual network to the viewing stations in the patient rooms.
o Phase Two: Install and integrate Stryker imaging system into LAN. Equip the patient rooms with viewing terminals. Train all users to effectively utilize all the new tools to streamline operations in the clinic, providing more responsive patient care.
At the beginning of 2008, Vi3 technicians went to work, in cooperation with the installation team from Stryker to coordinate and configure the Stryker digital system in the LAN. Vi3 assisted in configuration of Waco Orthopedics’ Outlook2007 integrated scheduling system, where they utilize Microsoft Office 2007 technology to schedule all patient office visits and surgeries for the clinic’s 5 orthopedic surgeons. Stryker’s install personnel commented that this was one of the smoothest installations they remember.
Vi3 ordered and then enabled the doctors to utilize their newly acquired Dell XPS laptop’s to view their patient images wherever they are located, at either of the hospitals where they perform surgeries. The physicians can also utilize Outlook Web Access to view the schedule for the next day or the next week, and coordinate their schedule with their partners. Vi3 enabled the physicians to utilize their iPhones to coordinate their scheduling of surgeries and patient activities.
Skains has been quite impressed with the relative smoothness of this project and the timeliness of its completion, stating:
“Vi3 responded quickly, planned methodically, and cooperated fully with me, our staff and physicians to architect and plan the network, negotiate the cost for all the equipment and to implement the solutions in conjunction with our digital imaging vendor, all within our agreed, promised time estimates and within the predetermined budget we established at the outset. We could not be more pleased with our choice of Vi3 Technologies as our network integration technology partner.
We are also utilizing Vi3’s ViewPoint Managed Services which saves the clinic the accumulated cost of an in- house IT staff member to manage our 41 device LAN. We are saving the cost of salary, vacation days, benefits and personnel management by deploying the Vi3 Viewpoint service. They are monitoring our network, automating the updates, and keeping our security up to the minute so we can rest assured that they are ‘on top of’ any issues that may arise.”
Vi3 has developed proven expertise in Medical Practice Technology Solutions, and is actively pursuing new medical practice clients throughout Texas.
Interested?
· Contact Sam Smith, Vi3 Managing Director at ssmith@vi3tech.com, at 254-230-0382, x 5008.
