At JFK, "the initial infrastructure from six years ago still exists and supports today's technology," explains Allen Thorpe, the medical center's system engineer. "We are pushing toward a paperless and filmless environment, which will take us through the bumpy road of the future with minimal damage."

Thorpe's staff will lead the hospital organization down that road with the help of a strong ATM backbone with T1 links extending to several physician offices across New Jersey. The ATM connections uplink directly into a 3Com Corp. CoreBuilder 7000HD.

The 27-year-old facility successfully cleared its most recent technological hurdle, its merger with Muhlenberg Regional Medical Center, by using an ATM pipe and OC-3 connections. More than 600 users were added to the network as a result of the combination, and the system didn't miss a beat, Thorpe says.

By the end of 1998, all desktops will connect to the network from 10/100 switched and shared Ethernet connections. This will support complex bandwidth-intensive applications, such as Imnet MedVision medical imaging, which places X-rays directly onto the network in seconds for affiliated doctors to download from any location.

Doctors, nurses and other medical professionals rely on HBO & Co.'s (HBOC's) product line to manage patient records and other files; the hospital finds the electronic process to be much faster than filing paperwork, according to Thorpe. All departments use Clinstar Patient Care, Clinstar Radiology and Clinstar Pharmacy to track and store more than 20,000 admissions and discharges per year, radiological details and medication distribution, respectively.

Thorpe and his staff use Citrix Systems' WinFrame thin-client application to support remote users. WinFrame's user authentication and 3Com's Total Control Hub protect vital data from privacy violations. Cisco Systems' PIX firewall further secures the network by monitoring all outgoing and incoming Internet traffic. "The low ratio of support personnel to the amount of hardware and users presents a challenge for our staff," explains Thorpe. Only five support people work in the field to cover more than 10 doctor's offices and homes, with just two more manning the helpdesk.

"With two support people at the helpdesk, we clear 45 percent of the calls," Thorpe says. "It's a matter of budgeting. Until we increase it, our response time suffers."

For more information on JFK Medical Center and its facilities, see www.jfkhs.org.