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Medical
Adventist
Health System: Support from the Top
Adventist Health System
(AHS) is the largest not-for-profit, Protestant healthcare organization
in the US with 43,000 employees, serving nearly four million patients
annually. When they decided to deploy a digital communications
application, they wanted to ensure that headquarters could maintain
control of the "corporate" message, but allow the local college or
university to create and manage content relevant to the local campus.
AxisTV was first
employed by AHS in June 2004, and they are currently in the process of
upgrading to the newest version, 6.0, which was launched this August.
AHS
Corporate headquarters in Winter Park, Florida, purchased all software and
hardware, and houses the central Content Server which feeds displays at
the Winter Park complex and six remote campuses - Andrews University,
Berrien Springs, Michigan; Union College, Lincoln, Nebraska; Southern
Adventist University, Collegedale, Tennessee; Florida Hospital College
of Health Sciences, Orlando, Florida; Oakwood College, Huntsville,
Alabama; and Southwest Adventist University, Keene, Texas. Because AHS
is affiliated with the Seventh-day Adventist church, they specifically
selected six Adventist colleges and universities that are located within
church divisions where AHS also has hospitals.
The administrators at
AHS keep the program balanced by partnering with the campuses in lieu of
a top-down strategy. “It’s our product, but we see ourselves in more of
a support roll for the campuses. We don’t want to dictate to them. We
want it to be useful and beneficial to the campuses – not just a
bulletin board for corporate messages,” comments Anthony Vera Cruz,
Coordinator of Corporate Communications at AHS. He continues, “The
reason we prefer AxisTV to any other solution is that it’s so easy to
use. With some basic training, you can put up a text bulletin in a
matter of minutes. We’ve gotten a great response from the
not-so-tech-savvy users.”
Corporate uses a
single 16x9 format on a single plasma in the lobby. Messages are
delivered in a three-window plus crawl configuration to 42” plasma
displays at each of the six remote facilities, usually in the student
center or cafeteria. Corporate uses two of these windows to deliver
inspirational messages, recruiting news and photos of various AHS
facilities. Local content includes bulletins, video programs,
announcements, news, weather and event schedules. “In the beginning, we
published more of the content in order to show the campuses the
potential,” says Vera Cruz. “Now the campuses are turning over bulletins
anywhere from every two days to rapid changes within a day. “
Every site has their own
processes – some with individuals generating content and others using a
team approach, with faculty and students submitting content. Andrews
University is utilizing the Video Window Option to show their
campus-produced news show and Southern Adventist University has
incorporated Event Schedule Display. At corporate, AHS is exploring the
use of their plasma’s picture-in-picture option to show CNN or Fox News
with bulletins in the background. “We really like the flexibility of the
system for the different sites,” continues Vera Cruz. “It’s able to
accommodate all types of users and uses. Instead of making our people
fit the product, the system adapts to our needs.”
Vera Cruz praises the
Software Maintenance and Support Agreement (SMA) they purchased to
support their AxisTV system. “I’ve found it to be invaluable for our
infrastructure, which includes different locations, different people in
charge of the systems, and different networks. We’ve run into various
issues that are unique to our application, and the SMA gives us
immediate access to, and response from, the Visix support folks.” He
continued, “Lee Watts and the Visix team have been very responsive to us
in terms of roll out and support – even before we added the SMA. They
were attentive to our needs – modifying the software and adopting new
versions to include our requests. I saw software modifications that we’d
discussed a year before being incorporated into new versions as they
were launched.”
The organization has
plans to
expand AxisTV solutions into other facilities. Various AHS network
hospitals are also exploring AxisTV for their needs. “It’s new. It’s techie. It’s better than looking at a printed piece of paper because
it’s constantly changing. It’s great because it’s attractive and it’s an
attention-getter,” Vera Cruz sums up. “I love it!”
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