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Nearly 400 patient beds. 

1,400 new employees.

More than 2,100 brand new devices added to a brand new network.

That was just some of the monumental task facing OSF HealthCare as it welcomed hospitals in Urbana and Danville, Illinois as the newest hospitals in the OSF HealthCare ministry. OSF and Presence Health announced the ownership change in August 2017.

At the stroke of midnight, February 1, all information technology systems had to begin the process of being switched from Presence to OSF, including patient medical records, lab, pharmacy, and every other technology that runs a hospital. 

More than 2,000 new devices – printers, laptops, computers and more – were be deployed in a matter of hours, without disrupting patient care.

It is a challenge the POINTCore Network Services team at OSF HealthCare been planning for since last fall.

"Think about getting your new phone for the very first time and having new gizmos and gadgets on it that you didn't know existed and trying to re-organize your work flow on a phone. We’ve got to do that with every department over that organization. It's monumental and the amount of information – the amount of flows the amount of touches. We talk high level and it's 185 software applications but the sophistication of those software applications and the sequencing of how data flows back-and-forth between them is essential," said Jim Mormann, CIO for OSF HealthCare.

"We usually take these projects over the course of 3 to 6 months sometimes three years to update closets and we are literally updating every piece of hardware in two full hospitals in a very short amount of time. So we will turn their network off at midnight and we will turn our network on and we will work on connecting a little over 2000-2500 devices starting at midnight," added Casey Messenger, POINTCore Network Services Project Manager.

While some may take the expression "flipping the switch" literally, in reality it's a process, a progression turning of turning on network security that allows the systems to actually be used and operate. 

After all of the systems are online, there will be a transition for the new OSF employees because they have to learn a new electronic patient medical record system. OSF will have people who are well-trained on the Epic EMR system stationed in Urbana and Danville for several weeks to help with the transition so patient care is seemless and properly documented.

"There’s a wide number of people that will be on staff to help support them - we called it at the elbow - any of our organization Mission Partners who have been through a cutover know what at the elbow support is. But it's really bringing our care providers from other facilities and having them readily available to help the care providers - clinicians and techs and staff - to get through the daily activities of what it’s like to go with a new system,"  says Jim Mormann.

"Our team has been extremely excited it's been a very good opportunity to learn a lot about what we can do for efficiencies and going forward how we can improve these processes so we’re actually very excited to see how this rolls out," added Jamie Sammis, POINTCore Project Manager.

"We all live in different communities we all have an obligation to make sure that we're helping the community sustain itself. And if we put ourselves in a situation where it's our community that's directly impacted by a health care group that's moving or changing out what would we want? And when you start thinking about in that context it makes it a lot easier trying to think about doing impossible and making sure that we can step to the table to do something that we haven't done before but know full well that is for the sole purpose of improving the care in the community and making sure that health care does stay in the community. Our team is excited about that," Mormann added.

With the addition of OSF HealthCare Heart of Mary Medical Center in Urbana and OSF HealthCare Sacred Heart Medical Center in Danville, OSF HealthCare is one of the largest Catholic health systems in Illinois, with 12 hospitals in the state and one in Escanaba, Michigan. The Peoria, Illinois-bases system employs nearly 21,000 system wide. 

Founded in 1877, OSF is owned and operated by The Sisters of the Third Order of St. Francis.