Seattle Children's provides hope, care and cures with Rackspace Healthcare Cloud's managed services for Epic
This leading pediatric hospital strengthened security, streamlined records management and achieved 99.999% uptime for access to critical patient data.
Industry
Healthcare
Challenge
Optimize Epic EMR system management while maintaining availability, data security, and cost-effective, scalable operations.
Outcome Seattle Children's partnered with Rackspace Technology to modernize its Epic infrastructure, achieving 99.999% uptime to help ensure that clinicians have seamless access to critical patient data. Solutions Private Cloud Platforms CloudCustomer
Ranked as one of the top children’s hospitals in the country by U.S. News & World Report, Seattle Children’s Hospital serves as the pediatric and adolescent academic medical center for Washington, Alaska, Montana and Idaho — the largest region of any children’s hospital in the country.
As one of the nation’s top five pediatric research centers, Seattle Children’s Research Institute is internationally recognized for its work in neurosciences, immunology, cancer, infectious diseases, injury prevention and much more. Seattle Children’s Foundation and Seattle Children’s Guild Association — the largest all-volunteer fundraising network for any hospital in the country — work to raise funds for lifesaving care and research.
Together, Seattle Children’s Hospital, Research Institute and Foundation deliver superior patient care, advance new discoveries and treatments through pediatric research, and raise funds to create better futures for patients.
“Founded over a century ago by a group of philanthropic women, Seattle Children’s remains dedicated to its mission to provide hope, care and cures to help every child live the healthiest and most fulfilling life possible,” said Dr. Zafar Chaudry, Senior VP, Chief Digital Officer and Chief AI and Information Officer.
“We partnered with Rackspace because of Fanatical Experience® and their ability to provide an infrastructure to a guaranteed uptime of 99.999%, which means that our clinicians would have secure access to our EMR around the clock at the point of care.”
Situation
As the healthcare landscape evolved, Seattle Children's recognized the opportunity to optimize its Epic electronic medical record (EMR) system. "Epic is our core electronic medical record and a critical component of the hospital’s patient care operations," said Dr. Chaudry.
Seattle Children’s evaluated potential Epic hosting partners against several categories: availability, security, expertise, and cost.
Ensuring continuous availability and minimizing system downtime was critical, as even brief interruptions could significantly impact patient care and hospital operations. Seattle Children’s needed a partner to provide near-constant uptime while allowing for system updates and maintenance.
The hospital also needed to secure sensitive patient data in compliance with HIPAA regulations, and this challenge was intensified by the growing demand for IT resources as Seattle Children's expanded its services and patient base. In addition, Seattle Children’s needed to balance these criteria with infrastructure spend to run and maintain the EMR.
“Collaborating with Rackspace Technology enables my team to focus solely on supporting our clinicians, as they manage the complexities and risks associated with our technology.”
Solution
Seattle Children's turned to Rackspace Technology® for a comprehensive solution to migrate, host and manage its Epic deployment.
“We partnered with Rackspace because of Rackspace Fanatical Experience® and their ability to provide an infrastructure to a guaranteed uptime of 99.999%, which means that our clinicians would have secure access to our EMR around the clock at the point of care,” said Dr. Chaudry.
Chaudry said Seattle Children's selected Rackspace as its infrastructure partner for Epic for several reasons. “First, Rackspace guaranteed an uptime that couldn’t be matched,” he said. “It also provided access to skilled resources because we purchased a managed service, giving us certified Epic specialists to run our system 24x7x365 — something I could not do in-house.”
To meet the hospital’s immediate needs and long-term growth, Rackspace Technology designed a fully HIPAA-compliant, HITRUST-certified hosted private cloud solution. It delivers 99.999% uptime, 24x7x365 support from certified Epic specialists, and robust security controls to help protect sensitive patient data. The scalable infrastructure will adapt to future demands, while a predictable pricing model helps to improve financial planning.
To address specific requirements like network configuration and security controls, Rackspace Technology partnered with Seattle Children's. "Rackspace and Seattle Children's worked together closely to ensure that an appropriate configuration was built that factored in elements such as cost, the actual design performance of the environment, as well as ensuring that the redundancy really met our needs," said Nigel Hartell, senior director and chief architect at Seattle Children's.
This collaborative approach ensured that the solution met technical requirements and aligned with Seattle Children's operational needs and long-term strategic goals.
The Rackspace team's clear understanding of both the Epic system and the unique demands of healthcare IT allowed the combined team to tailor the solution, creating a robust and flexible foundation for the hospital's critical EMR system.
"When I started working with the Rackspace team, it was apparent that they were very familiar with Epic as an environment,” said Hartell. “They didn't look at it as a series of servers or individual technology components. They were actually aware of it as a system, which supported the success of our partnership."
Seattle Children's clinicians now have 99.999% uptime for their EMR system, maximizing uninterrupted, high-quality patient care.
Outcome
Through its partnership with Rackspace Technology, Seattle Children's Hospital optimized its current IT operations and positioned itself for future innovation in healthcare technology — all in service of its mission to provide the best possible care for children.
The transition to the new infrastructure concluded four weeks ahead of schedule, minimizing disruption to hospital operations. "The feedback from clinical staff was, 'Did we actually have a downtime?'" said Dr. Chaudry. "That's testament to the fact that it was meticulously planned, executed and communicated."
The new infrastructure enhanced performance with improved speed and reliability. "With our new infrastructure running our Epic EMR, we found solid reliability,” said Dr. Chaudry. “The system is very responsive with no lag time." The Rackspace 99.999% uptime guarantee helps to ensure that clinicians have constant access to critical patient information.
Seattle Children's also benefits from a predictable cost model, which allows for better financial planning. Rackspace transitioned Seattle Children’s from a consumption-based cost model to a fixed-fee model. By transferring responsibility for Epic infrastructure management, the hospital can increase its focus on patient care. “By leveraging Rackspace Technology's expertise, I can effectively mitigate risk,” said Dr. Chaudry.
The successful migration and optimization of the Epic system has opened new possibilities for Seattle Children's, including the use of high-performance computing (HPC) environments for research in the Rackspace Private Cloud. "The relationship with Rackspace means that we are able to actually take care of that, and our talented team can focus on adding the right kind of libraries, packages and software that advances the science at Seattle Children’s Research Institute," said Hartell.
This expanded use of technology is enabling Seattle Children's to push the boundaries of pediatric care and research, ultimately benefiting the children and families they serve.
"We had a great experience working with Rackspace as a true partner," said Hartell. "It's essential to bring different cultures together for a successful outcome, which was our experience with the Epic migration."
Dr. Chaudry concluded, "We're enabling our physicians to access the right information at the point of care all the time, and this empowers our clinicians to make decisions that help our patients live their most fulfilling lives."
About Rackspace Technology
Rackspace Technology is a hybrid, multicloud solutions expert. We combine our expertise with the world’s leading technologies — across AI, applications, data and security — to deliver end-to-end solutions. We have a proven record of advising customers based on their business challenges, designing solutions that scale, building and managing those solutions, and optimizing returns into the future. As a global hybrid, multicloud technology services pioneer, we deliver innovative capabilities to help customers build new revenue streams, increase efficiency and create incredible experiences. Named a best place to work, year after year according to Fortune, Forbes and Glassdoor, we attract and develop world-class talent to deliver the best expertise to our customers. Everything we do is wrapped in Fanatical Experience® — our obsession with customer success that drives us to help each customer work faster, smarter and stay ahead of what’s next.
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