Hughes Professional Services Enable Healthcare Provider to Meet Aggressive Growth Goals and Integrate Newly Acquired Clinics
Hughes solutions help the healthcare provider achieve its goal of adding not just two to three clinics each year but expanding its footprint by as many as 500 or more sites annually and to do so cost-effectively—in what one company executive describes as “massive scale at minimum cost.”
Customer
This national leader in value-based healthcare is on a mission to change primary care in the U.S. through a combination of its technology and operations platform and its neighborhood medical practices, which comprise standalone and in-store locations at a national pharmacy chain. The company operates 200 clinics across 15 markets and counting, all connected by a network utilizing Fortinet equipment at each site and manually configured.
Challenge
The company has an aggressive growth plan to add 1,000 locations over the next three years by both acquiring businesses and building new locations from scratch. For the internal IT team, the challenge lies in configuring each new site’s network to integrate with the corporate infrastructure, while also managing day-to-day IT operations and support across the company’s vast network. By early 2022, the healthcare provider found its IT team stretched to capacity in keeping pace with the flurry of acquisitions. To assist the healthcare provider in achieving its expansion objectives, Fortinet recommended Hughes.
With their own dedicated IT department and an eye toward cost-consciousness, the executive team was cautious about outsourcing. However, Hughes offered an affordable option for professional network engineering services, including a level of service and support that would position the company to reach their expansion goals smoothly and more efficiently than relying solely on internal resources.
Solution
Hughes was selected to provide network engineering expertise and configuration services to augment their in-house IT resources. As a result, the healthcare provider now integrates each newly acquired site into the corporate network infrastructure quickly and efficiently with assistance, including templates to:
- Guide site installations, including equipment lists and configuration instructions for integrating locations that already use the Fortinet platform, as well as converting non-Fortinet sites.
- Support the company’s data center needs, which are also expanding to reflect the larger organization. These data centers rely on Fortinet devices for reporting and management.
Outcome
With Hughes as a professional services partner, the company’s IT team gains some breathing room and the opportunity to respond to other corporate priorities. In addition, the healthcare provider is now able to meet the aggressive growth goals and high expectations of its pharmacy partner, while enabling all acquired clinics to recognize their full operational potential and deliver quality healthcare to patients in the community.
Get more information about how Hughes provides solutions for healthcare.