Logicalis

Helping NHS Hampshire create a secure ‘one-stop-shop’ for health services

 

The Client

Equivalent in size to two Wembley pitches, the 770-room Aldershot Centre for Health (ACfH) houses clinical and non-clinical staff from NHS Hampshire, Hampshire Community Health Care, Surrey PCT, Surrey and Borders Partnership Trust, Frimley Park Hospital, three GP practices and the Ministry of Defence (Army). It serves a local population of 45,000 and a wider catchment area of 250,000.

The Challenge

With the evolution of community care facilities and the development of new service models in healthcare, new multi-disciplinary centres are being developed to provide ‘one-stop-shops’ for local health and social services needs. The Aldershot Centre for Health (ACfH), the largest health centre in the UK when it opened in December 2008, is one such establishment.

Karl Goatley, IT Programme Director for NHS Hampshire, the Centre’s head lessee, says the creation of this new centre represented a huge investment in healthcare services shared between the NHS and the military - and with it, the enormous challenge of building a highly secure voice and data network with demarcated access to confidential information across multiple agencies.

“The brief was to design the Centre’s IT infrastructure so busy clinicians and other healthcare professionals can quickly and securely access their patient information and clinical systems from a single integrated network,” says Goatley. “We therefore needed a secure single sign-on (SSO) solution, integrated with Microsoft Active Directory authentication, that would be sufficiently flexible to facilitate a dynamic way of working.”

Since access to confidential patient data is a highly sensitive issue for any healthcare organisation, Goatley says striking the right balance between security and clinician convenience was an important factor in the choice of solution and provider. Moreover, he says that data is often held in multiple systems, making it hard to pull together. It is also important that the security put in place works for the people using it in their daily working lives.

”The brief demanded a complex technical solution that was both flexible and made best use of space whilst supporting clinical collaboration,” says Goatley. “It needed to provide scalable, high performance networking with equally high levels of integration, security and authentication to give peace of mind to clinical and administrative staff from different agencies when sharing resources and applications from any area of the site. As well as creating a distributed architecture, we also needed resilience and strong authentication services to any part of our geographic region.

“Moreover, the fluidity of our edge network infrastructure - such as new site builds, refurbishments and relocation of remote services - required a modular solution to accommodate any future additions to the authentication infrastructure and enable any agency within the centre to function autonomously should the need arise. Lastly, we were keen for the chosen solution to act as a technical model for any potential future multi-agency sites.”

The Solution

High on the list of selection criteria was the provider’s ability to demonstrate value for money, compliance with public sector information security, a sound product development strategy and implementation methodology – all backed by proven service and support capabilities. Following a detailed tender process, Logicalis was selected to deliver and support the required network infrastructure.

Logicalis proposed a Cisco secure networking solution - supported by Imprivata OneSign as its preferred single sign-on (SSO) technology. As well as providing robust LAN connectivity to every occupant of the centre, this solution fulfilled the requirement for network segmentation and security and provides each agency with secure connectivity to applications running on its own native network.

The network access technology proposed for ACfH needed to conform to NHS security recommendations and Best Practice Guidelines laid down by NHS Connecting for Health (CFH). Logicalis therefore implemented an 802.1X network access solution powered by Cisco Access Control Server (ACS) and a secure virtualised Cisco LAN. Cisco Adaptive Security Appliances (ASA) were deployed for perimeter and inter-organisational security, and to enable shared services by controlling the flow of network traffic between agencies.

The Outcome

The SSO solution has removed the need for a number of staff at ACfH to provide separate log-on credentials for each individual system or application. It provides the potential to access their Windows desktop session from any of their organisation’s workstations. For Goatley, a secure access process based on finger biometrics brings real productivity gains, including a reduction in helpdesk calls and speed of access to applications for both clinical and non-clinical staff.

“Quick and easy access to patient data is often one of the biggest hassles for clinical staff,” he says. “Just ask any nurse how big a problem it is remembering half a dozen passwords that change every 30 days. OneSign overcomes this problem by providing user authentication at the desktop, network, application and transaction level - enhancing Windows desktop and remote VPN passwords with strong authentication options - in our case finger biometrics. It means there’s nothing to carry, lose or forget.”

“Authorised users can simply walk into any room, plug in their laptop at any network outlet, and logon to their profiled applications,” says Goatley. “It means no desk in the Centre needs to be tied to any one organisation occupying the site. OneSign also has the potential to prescribe who has access to what, and provides visibility into what was accessed - when, how and from where.”

The Cisco technology implemented by Logicalis also provides ACfH with many benefits. By closely monitoring the security protection on endpoint devices and enforcing security policies, it effectively mitigates virus and malware-based security threats. For Goatley and his team, it means fewer infections, fewer helpdesk calls and a more resilient network.

The Future

“During the procurement process and beyond, Logicalis provided early assurances that they were the right organisation for the job in terms of their experience, expertise and access to a wide range of partners,” says Goatley. “We’re delighted with their project management skills, support and ability to react positively - all essential attributes in bringing everything together within a tight three-month schedule.

“We were also impressed by their genuine desire to understand our business needs so as to provide us with a tailored and effective solution. The project team’s consistency in continuing to deliver post project has attracted many favourable comments from staff regarding their service acumen and friendly but professional approach,” he concludes.

Since the successful launch of ACfH in 2008, Logicalis has worked closely with NHS Hampshire and the relationship continues to flourish. Indeed, the Trust recently confirmed the strength of their association by signing a new three-year Managed Service agreement with Logicalis and by extending the SSO solution to include a pan-Hampshire rollout.

About NHS Hampshire

For more detailed information on NHS Hampshire, please go to:

http://www.hampshire.nhs.uk/

About Aldershot Centre for Health (ACfH)

For more detailed information on ACfH, please go to:

http://www.hampshire.nhs.uk/local-services/new-developments/105-aldershot-centre-for-health