CENTERFOLD

A Strong Network Pulses At St. Mary's

by Maureen Zapryluk

Mission-critical computer systems networking a nationwide hospital organization not only define innovative health care technology--it can be the difference between life and death. St. Mary's Health System in Knoxville, Tenn., started to network five years ago. "We are probably three to five years ahead of other hospi-

tals in networking. While their networking may occur in pieces and parts, it isn't the lifeblood of their hospital like SMHS," says Larry D. Rupard, network analyst.

St. Mary's is one of 18 hospitals in the Sisters of Mercy Catholic Health System. Each region of the country has a networked group of hospitals, and St. Mary's routed network is connected to other hospitals in Kentucky, Ohio, Illinois and Pennsylvania via a T1 network. Knoxville's Ethernet network will become a switched ATM network by November's end. ATM will be implemented soon at a Cincinnati, Ohio, hospital site.

Instead of each hospital buying its own computer system, the hospitals are looking for one system for the whole Sisters of Mercy health organization, possibly Macintoshes running managed-care applications. A systems integratio n challenge is "working with all the different vendors to get each system to talk with the other systems," notes Rupard. "Instead of IS choosing for all the departments, we let the departments choose the best-of-breed applications for their network functions," he says. Twelve hundred users at the main hospital and off-site locations access the network through Windows. Protocols used are IPX and TCP/IP. The operating system is NetWare and flavors of Unix. A planned T1 link to the Internet within a year will increase the number of desktops with Internet access, which currently is 60.

Users at off-site facilities such as physical therapy units, home health care and walk-in clinics can access the same applications as the SMHS hospital, by being remotely connected through a CSU/DSU and an Ethernet hub to a T1 line. Eight physicians can dial-in through 14.4-Kbps modems to a terminal server. Sixteen doctors' offices are connected to Knoxville's network through ISDN. Information Network for Operating Room Management (INFORM), a surgery PC-based system, provides patient data that can be collected prior to, during and following surgical events.

A World Wide Web server holds an SMHS home page for the affiliated hospitals' special programs (www.mercy.com). High school students participate in a summer internship at the hospitals through a program called Future Docs. Another service is Violence Tracking, which assists battered women with recovery.

St. Mary's hospital is creating network solutions in an ever-expanding group of modern medical facilities.

November 15, 1995