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“Knowing what your employees use the intranet for can be very useful in promoting important news.” Mike Ward from Anderson Hospital |
Mike Ward is intelligent and easy going, with a quick wit and a subtle sense of humor. A minute into the conversation he breaks out a small joke: until recently, they were a small hospital in the middle of a cornfield. Mike is the IS Directory at Anderson Hospital. With 140 beds and 1000 employees, they are a community-based hospital located just outside of St. Louis, on the Illinois side of the river.
We asked Mike what goals were accomplished through their Intranet Connections implementation. Like most companies looking to streamline business processes and cut costs with intranet software, they started with eliminating their paper manuals that were stored in each and every unit throughout the hospital. By putting all of the policies and procedures on the intranet, they have seen considerable costs savings.
Also lacking was any type of corporate directory or phone book. Now with Active Directory integration, employees can quickly and easily look up staff profiles including their contact information, locations and phone numbers. When someone changes departments, the intranet is instantly updated through the connection between Intranet Connections and Active Directory.
Providing employees with service driven tools to help them in their daily tasks was a priority. The electronic Form Builder is used for documenting patient complaints. Other e-forms are used for fire alarm system tests to ensure they are working correctly. Committee minutes are stored and searchable via the intranet, and they have created physician calendars so everyone can see at a glance who is on-call throughout the hospital.
Mike points out that knowing what your employees use the intranet for can be useful. Like most hospitals, what is on the cafeteria menu is top of mind. Recognizing that the nursing staff isn’t fond of checking emails, they set out to share important hospital news by placing it strategically on the intranet home page … right beside the cafeteria lunch menu. Nurses now check the intranet to get updates on news affecting their day.
Anderson also likes to use their intranet as a launch pad to other web applications, including sharing how many patients are currently in the various units, a scheduling tool, and they feature a live webcam that publishes the weather from a camera positioned on the roof of the hospital.
Recently Anderson created a department page to house all H1N1 information, awareness and tips for nurses and other front line staff. It is constantly being updated and keeps the entire hospital informed of potential health issues.
Anderson Hospital tends to be on the conservative side of employee-driven content. Mike explains that their intranet has select areas where employees are free to publish and share, but that they like the ability to control content approval and to monitor contributions. This approach has provided Mike and his hospital the flexibility to evolve the intranet at their own pace.
Thank you to Mike Ward for taking the time to speak to us about Anderson Hospital’s implementation of Intranet Connections. The best part of our job is when we can share the successes of our customers and their intranets!
Carolyn Douglas
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