The demands of the National Health Service's ambitious information technology projects have led one Scotland-based trust to merge its multi-site helpdesk systems into a central location.
NHS Forth Valley encompasses 8,000 staff in two acute hospitals, six community hospitals and 56 health centers. Three primary locations housed the trust's IT departments, which have been replaced by a single IT service system at Falkirk and District Royal Infirmary.
The ITIL-compatible system, called SupportDesk, was supplied by Cheshire, England-based vendor House-on-the-Hill.
"It's a massive spread of responsibilities and for that we need a reliable, proven Help Desk tool," said ICT Support Manager Aynsley Paterson.
SupportDesk enables data segmentation for users in different sections, who require authorization to see only information relevant to them.
The trust uses a combination of remote and on-site maintenance and problem-solving with the new helpdesk. With some IT support staff based at Stirling Royal Infirmary and other sites, the main Service Desk regularly uses remote desktop tools to fix system problems. "If a problem can’t be fixed remotely we have people who can quickly get to the actual desk site," said Paterson.
As with any clinical IT implementation or upgrade, staff use and adoption is critical to the success of a roll-out. Paterson said giving users the ability to log, track and update their own calls via SupportDesk’s Web portal has been a great help in this regard. "That proved to be a very good move," Paterson said. "We were really surprised at how popular the facility was -- usage went through the roof!"
A press release noted the helpdesk tool also enables generation of reports that can demonstrate how well the teams are performing and the number of calls being closed.
