REGIONAL WEST MEDICAL CENTER DEPLOYS THE ASSUREON MEDICAL IMAGE ARCHIVE TO IMPROVE PERFORMANCE AND DISASTER RECOVERY

PROCESS
Regional West Medical Center1 implemented the Horizon Medical ImagingTM picture archiving and communication system (PACS) from McKesson to improve workflow and protection of patient records. The McKesson solution provided immediate improvements for the facility, yet the underlying infrastructure which supported the PACS was outdated and limiting the overall potential of the solution. Regional West wanted a long term image archive that not only enhanced the advantages offered by the McKesson solution, but also mitigated an increasing dependency on primary and secondary storage tiers. Additionally, the facility wanted to implement an effective contingency plan that ensured full data replication and disaster recovery. To ensure they were optimizing retrieval speeds, data protection and workflow, Regional West made the decision to reassess the architecture supporting their medical imaging environment.
CASESTUDY

CUSTOMERCHALLENGES
Slowandunpredictablewaittimesfor recallofolderstudies Inefficientdisasterrecoveryprocesses Risingdependenceonprimarystoragetiers Riskstoworkflowandlong-termfeasibility IncreasingburdenonITstaff

CUSTOMEROVERVIEW
RegionalWestMedicalCenterisaprogressiveorganizationwhichactively leveragesthelatesttechnologytoimprovethequalityandscopeoftheservices theyoffer.LocatedinScottsbluff,Nebraska,theorganizationisdedicatedto supportingsafe,comprehensiveandinnovativehealthcareservicesforthepeople andcommunitiesinitsregion.The180-bedfacilityhasevolvedintoaregional referralcenterandisoneofthreeLevelIITraumaCentersinthestate,providing 24-houremergencyandtraumacareforpatientsthroughouttheNebraska panhandleandEasternWyoming.

CHALLENGE:IMPROVINGIMAGEACCESSPERFORMANCE
Inordertoeffectivelytreatpatients,themedicalstaffatRegionalWestrequired immediateaccesstoallmedicalrecordsregardlessofage.Thefacilitywasusing networkattachedstorage(NAS)forthesecondarytier,supportedbyanear-line tapelibraryforarchiving.WhiletheaccessspeedsforNASweresufficient,the slowandunpredictableretrievaltimesforimagesstoredontapewerecreating insurmountableburdensontheITstaffsupportingit. Thelibrarysmechanicalconstructwasnegativelyimpactingthespeedofrecall, andinvolvedagreatdealofcomplexitywhenrecallingolderrecords.Dueto theofflinestateofolderstudies,thehelpdeskwastaskedwithroutingretrieval requestsforthisdata.Theprocessinvolvedroutingrequeststoaproduct specialist,whoresearchedtheindextoidentifythecorrecttape,andwhenfound, mounteditintothelibrary.Bythetimetherecordwasfinallyrestored,anywhere from24to48hourshadpassed.Compoundingthis,ifthehardwareexperienced anyproblemsduringthisprocess,thenearestsupportfacilitywaseighthours awaywhichcreatedadditionalconcern.

CHALLENGE:IMPLEMENTINGANEFFECTIVEDISASTER RECOVERYPLAN
Themedicalcenteralsoneededtoupdatetheircontingencyplanwithaproven disasterrecovery(DR)andbusinesscontinuancesolution.TheexistingDR strategyreliedonamanualprocesstorotatetapemediaoffsite.Thisprocess wasunreliable,vulnerable,andalsorequiredsignificantmanagementresources. RegionalWestwantedasolutionthatprovidedfullreplication,failoverandalso eliminatedtheoperationaloverheadcreatedbythemanualproceduresinplace.

CASESTUDY

NEXSAN 555St.CharlesDrive,Suite202,ThousandOaks,CA91360 | p.866.4.NEXSAN f.805.418.2799 | www.nexsan.com

Inmostcases, administratorscanttell whenarecordisbeing pulledfromAssureonas opposedtotheprimary storagesystem,andthe systemimprovedourstaff efficiencybykeepingall datanear-lineforquick retrieval.Inaddition,we particularlylikeAssureons abilitytoprovideavery efficientDRsolution.
DONNA VOGEL DATASERVICESMANAGER, REGIONALWESTMEDICALCENTER

CHALLENGE:EFFICIENTSTORAGEUTILIZATION&IMPROVED WORKFLOW
Duetothelimitedperformanceoftheexistinglongtermarchive,thefacilitywas growingincreasinglydependentonprimaryandsecondarytiersofstorageand unknowinglyjeopardizingtheabilitytocreatenewstudies.Tounderstandthis,areview ofacommonmedicalimagearchiveworkflowiswarranted. Workflow:Newstudiesarewrittentoprimarystoragewhichmustbeflushedwhena highwatermarkisreached.Theflushingprocessintelligentlymigratesolderdata(based onlastaccesseddate)fromprimarytosecondary(NAS).Duetothesevulnerabilities, PACSoftenrequiresconfirmationthateachstudyisalsoarchivedbeforeitcanbefully reportedasacandidatetobeflushed.Therefore,ifastudyisnotconfirmedasarchived, thenitcannotbeflushedandmustbemaintainedonprimarystorage. Basedontheworkflowdescribedabove,thelibrarywasnotonlycreatingdelaysfor therecallofolderdata,butalsojeopardizingthearchivingofnewstudiesduetotimeoutsandunrelentingjobqueues.Thesejobqueuesweremakingitdifficulttoefficiently managethecapacityofprimarystorageandjeopardizingtheentirePACSworkflow.

SOLUTION:ASSUREONFROMNEXSAN,ADEDICATEDMEDICAL IMAGEARCHIVE
Afterconsideringthealternatives,RegionalWestselectedtheAssureonmedical imagearchive,fromNexsan.FeedbackfromMcKessonPACSenduserssuch asradiologistsandtechnologistshasbeenverypositive,especiallyregarding thespeedofimagerecallfromAssureon.ThemedicalcentersITandPACS administratorswerealsosurprisedbytheeasyimplementationandsupportfor existingworkflow. ThesimplicitytointegrateAssureonspowerfuldataprotectionelementswithout customdevelopmentorcomplexintegrationwasanotherbigplus,saidDonna Vogel,ISDataServicesManager,RegionalWestMedicalCenter.Inmostcases, administratorscanttellwhenarecordisbeingpulledfromAssureonasopposed totheprimarystoragesystem,andthesystemimprovedourstaffefficiencyby keepingalldatanear-lineforquickretrieval.Inaddition,weparticularlylike AssureonsabilitytoprovideaveryefficientDRsolution. AssureonisadedicatedmedicalimagearchivesolutionavailablethroughMcKesson.

CASESTUDY

NEXSAN 555St.CharlesDrive,Suite202,ThousandOaks,CA91360 | p.866.4.NEXSAN f.805.418.2799 | www.nexsan.com

NEXSANASSUREONBENEFITS
Simpletomanageasaself-managing, self-healingappliance Digitalfingerprintsenforcefullpreservation oforiginalfilesandmetadata Recurringauditsensuretamper-proofand corruption-proofdataprotection Consistentandpredictableonlineaccessto alldatawithbuilt-inreplicationandfailover Rapidrecoveryofindividualfileandimage data Dataprivacyenforcedthroughaccess authenticationandanunalterableaudittrail Enterpriseclassreliabilitywithdualcopies, RAID6andfullyredundanthardware Highlyefficientpoweranddensity Easytoexpandandscalableintothe petabytes Transparentapplicationintegrationmakes futurestoragemigrationsquickandeffortless

RESULTS:IMPROVEDDATAPROTECTION&AVAILABILITYFOR ALLMEDICALIMAGES
WithNexsanAssureoninproductionuse,themedicalcenterisnowgettingmore consistentrecallperformanceandimprovedreliability.Themostimportantbenefits andadvantagesofthesysteminclude: Data ProtectionAssureonsrecurringauditspreservetheoriginalstudy,while accessauthenticationandauditingensuresonlyauthorizeduserscanview data. Ease-of-UseAssureonisafullyself-managingandself-healingsolutionthat significantlyreducestheburdenonIT.Remotesitereplication,failoverandDR areincludedwithnoextrafeesandcreateamuchmoreefficientcontingency plan. EfficiencyOffloadingprimaryandsecondarystoragefreesupspacefor activedataandreducestheburdenofmanagingthesesystems.Thepower andcoolingcostsarealsoreducedusingNexsansAutoMAIDdiskspindown technology. Enterprise-class Performance and ScalabilityAsanonlineimagearchive, recallingpatientdataisreducedfromhourstominutes.Furthermore,Assureon iseasilyexpandedandadaptstotheevolvingdemandsofhealthcarefacilities.

ABOUTREGIONALWESTMEDICALCENTER
FormoreinformationonRegionalWestMedicalCenter,visitwww.rwmc.net.
1

Regional West Health Services does not endorse the Nexsan Assureon or any other product.

ABOUT NEXSAN
Nexsanisaleadingindependentproviderofdisk-basedstoragesystemsoffering industry-leadingreliability,spaceandpowerefficiency.Overcomingthechallenges oftraditionalstorage,thecompanysdisk-basedsystemsreducethecomplexity andcostofstoragewitheasy-to-use,efficientandenterprise-classfeatures, deliveringadifferentkindofstorageexperience. Formoreinformation,pleaseseethecompanyswebsiteatwww.nexsan.com.

CASESTUDY

NEXSAN 555St.CharlesDrive,Suite202,ThousandOaks,CA91360 | p.866.4.NEXSAN f.805.418.2799 | www.nexsan.com