The HHC Network Operation Center is monitored at the corporate data center 24 hours per day, 7 days a week.

The New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation (HHC) today announced the completion of a data center consolidation project that reduces the footprint of eleven hospital data centers into two centralized data centers designed to improve security, strengthen the corporation’s disaster recovery plans and reduce costs.

The new data centers will host HHC’s comprehensive electronic medical records system and more than 300 business and clinical IT applications used by 20,000 daily online users, and will serve the eleven public hospitals, four nursing homes and community health centers.  The consolidation of the multiple data centers will help standardize systems across the corporation, reduce the total IT footprint by 70 percent, and is projected to save $88 million over the next 5 years in reduced maintenance, power consumption, space and cooling needs.

“Data center consolidation is one of the most fundamental ways HHC will be able to lower costs of IT operations without compromising our ability to adopt advanced technology and progressive applications that support quality patient care and improve patient safety,” said HHC President Alan D. Aviles. “By concentrating technology resources into the larger facilities we will be able to operate a more reliable data transmission system that is not only cost efficient but robust enough to support rapidly changing technology demands for many years to come.”

The primary HHC data center with 6,600 square feet is located on the Jacobi Medical Center campus in the Bronx, and is designed to handle up to 210 network racks, which are designed to house, protect and organize a variety of computer equipment such as servers, routers and switches. The second data center, located in New Jersey, has approximately 2,000 square feet and houses 130 racks.

“Information technology’s mission is to support the needs of our users: clinicians and other staff at HHC.  Our systems must be flexible enough to adapt to their demands while at the same time provide them with the data they need as rapidly as possible in a secure environment,” said HHC Senior Vice President of Information Technology and Corporate Chief Information Officer Bert Robles.  “Consolidating our operations into two data centers allows us to better manage our overall IT environment with new comprehensive monitoring and management tools, reduce duplicate systems across the corporation, and reduce power consumption with the adoption of the latest technologies in this area.”

The new data centers were built over the last four years and were financed from the existing $67 million capital funds and OTPS budget.  The consolidated centers feature:

• Over 300 applications supported by a tier structure of security based on mission-critical levels of data.
• An upgraded Wide Area Network with expanded bandwidth to support new technologies and give end users faster access to business and clinical applications.
• A back-up network to ensure uninterrupted service to all of HHC facilities.
• Storage virtualization of 830 servers, an energy efficient technology used to drastically reduce server footprint and the overall consumption of energy.
•  Hot /Cold aisles Data Center architecture which uses air conditioners, fans, and raised floors as a cooling infrastructure and focuses on separation of the inlet cold air and the exhaust hot air.
• Establishment of the HHC Service Management Office and Enterprise Service Desk operating 24/7 to provide a single point of contact for all IT users.

As an early adopter of electronic health records, HHC has more than 20,000 users online daily, has computerized physician order entry that allows medical practitioners to electronically input instructions for the treatment of patients under their care, and electronic patient registries that monitor and improve the health of diabetic and heart disease patients across the 11-hospital system.

About HHC

The New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation (HHC) is a $6.7 billion integrated health care delivery system with its own 385,000 member health plan, MetroPlus, and is the largest municipal health care organization in the country. HHC serves 1.3 million New Yorkers every year and more than 450,000 are uninsured. HHC provides medical, mental health and substance abuse services through its 11 acute care hospitals, four skilled nursing facilities, six large diagnostic and treatment centers and more than 80 community based clinics. HHC Health and Home Care also provides in-home services for New Yorkers. HHC was the 2008 recipient of the National Quality Forum and The Joint Commissions John M. Eisenberg Award for Innovation in Patient Safety and Quality.   For more information, visit www.nyc.gov/hhc.

# # #