Business Issues
An efficient hospital relies on far more than just its hardworking doctors and nurses - solid IT systems are also crucial to the smooth running of a medical establishment. Today, information technology plays a crucial part in helping NHS (National Health Service) staff to effectively manage their increasingly demanding roles.

In order to ensure a reliable, efficient service for its staff users and, ultimately, effective care for its patients, the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital (London) needed to change the way it managed its own internal data. Specifically, Chelsea and Westminster Healthcare, an NHS Trust, needed a scalable, flexible and resilient storage and backup infrastructure to support their e-mail, file and print, and financial support systems. It was also important that this infrastructure supported cluster-based technology.

Solutions
By installing a StorageTek. D173 disk subsystem and L40 tape library into a storage area network (SAN), the hospital has centralised its data storage and backup, increased the availability of its data and minimised the management time and cost of its Windows 2000 servers. This is the first major step toward building the information core for the NHS, standardising across platforms and meeting the NHS Plan laid down by the Department of Health. Imminent applications that will benefit from this SAN infrastructure include a GP referral letter document management system and a retinal image EPR system.