
By Christian Boucher, Chief Healthcare Strategist/Evangelist, Citrix Healthcare Options

No trade was thrown into the chaos of the pandemic greater than healthcare. Frontline medical employees had labored underneath tenuous circumstances and caregivers pivoted to telehealth. However what in regards to the huge workforce that helps all of the operations behind the scenes? When a big U.S.-based community of 17 hospitals wanted to roll out a safe distant work answer to just about 40,000 workers, they answered this very query with superior digital expertise.
On the preliminary phases of the pandemic, the big hospital community was not arrange for a broadly dispersed distant workforce. Their management crew knew they wanted to equip workplace workers with a safe strategy to remotely entry their recordsdata and apps.
The hospital reviewed completely different choices resembling digital personal networks (VPN), however they opted for a Desktop-as-a-Service (DaaS) strategy as a result of it secures any kind of app or desktop from the cloud to any system. DaaS permits the hospital’s IT crew to ship all of the functions, recordsdata, and instruments that an worker wants in a unified, customized workspace, no matter the place individuals work or what system they use. What’s extra, with a predictable subscription mannequin, DaaS makes it simple to scale up or down on-demand.
Hospital management additionally bought hundreds of Chrome OS gadgets and enabled them with Citrix DaaS options due to their sound safety attributes. Management then labored with HR to coach and transition their newly distant workforce to the brand new expertise. All the things labored seamlessly collectively, enabling distant affected person advocates or different workers with safe entry to all obligatory apps and affected person information.
Deploying a DaaS Answer
Because it was mentioned at this 12 months’s HIMSS International Well being Convention & Exhibition, healthcare organizations adopting work-from-home (WFH) options at the moment are counting on DaaS options since they’re extra dependable, safe, and scalable versus applied sciences like VPNs.
With various levels of administrative and infrastructure administration dealt with by a vendor, a extremely scalable DaaS answer could be arrange quickly with out a heavy carry from groups of on-site engineers. Moreover, some DaaS options supply built-in integration with main public cloud suppliers like Azure, AWS, or Google, along with permitting prospects to leverage their very own datacenter investments as properly.
Whereas many non-clinical roles have transitioned to WFH, physicians and clinicians have additionally been impacted. There are numerous tales of subject hospitals being constructed over weekends and triage services taking on each house obtainable at well being programs the world over. Telehealth utilization grew considerably in the course of the preliminary durations of the pandemic and continues to see outstanding progress in comparison with pre COVID figures. As we speak, well being networks stay centered on adapting to a drastically modified work surroundings for hundreds of thousands of workers in any respect ranges of the group. In truth, in line with a current examine, 66% of information staff1 have mentioned will probably be essential for them to work remotely – on any system – shifting ahead.
IT Administration Made Simple
DaaS options aren’t only a boon for employees- IT groups can simply handle the deployment as properly. Administrative actions are pushed to hundreds of gadgets inside minutes and embrace delivering enterprise apps, updating safety insurance policies, and remotely wiping gadgets. Plus, zero-touch enrollment allows well being organizations to quickly scale operations by merely transport gadgets on to employees and configuring credentials from built-in cloud administration consoles.
Trusted healthcare DaaS companions are working to make sure IT groups can quickly deploy validated end-to-end software program and {hardware} options that ship the most effective expertise for any worker throughout the healthcare group. These strategic DaaS companions are consistently validating new apps, endpoints, and peripherals to make sure well being organizations proceed to have the utmost selection of validated options.
Lengthy-Time period Impression on Healthcare Organizations
The fast change in how and the place individuals do their jobs has prompted healthcare organizations to deal with innovation, and this shift in philosophy will function a robust catalyst for progress when this shift is embraced. Previous to COVID-19, solely 9% of workers mentioned their employer was introducing new methods of working. Since digital work has turn into the norm, 78% of workers reported their employer was planning to or has already launched new methods of working2.
Healthcare organizations that embrace and undertake a DaaS-centric technique is not going to solely profit within the quick time period, however they are going to be positioned because the class leaders of tomorrow as properly.
About The Writer: Christian Boucher, Chief Healthcare Strategist/Evangelist, Citrix Healthcare Options. Citrix builds the safe, unified digital workspace expertise that helps organizations unlock human potential and ship a constant workspace expertise wherever work must get completed. With Citrix, customers get a seamless work expertise and IT has a unified platform to safe, handle, and monitor various applied sciences in advanced cloud environments. For extra info go to www.citrix.com.
Appendix:
1: https://www.citrix.com/content material/dam/citrix/en_us/paperwork/off-site/the-state-of-security-in-a-hybrid-world.pdf
2: https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/insights/trade/health-care/health-care-workforce-trends.html