WASHINGTON and NEW YORK – A new article titled, “An HIT Solution for Clinical Care and Disaster Planning: How One Health Center in Joplin, MO, Survived a Tornado and Avoided a Health Information Disaster,” by the Geiger Gibson /RCHN Community Health Foundation Research Collaborative at the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services, was released This week in the Online Journal of Public Health Informatics (OJPJI). It examines the experience of a community health center in the aftermath of the major tornado that swept through the American Midwest in the spring of 2011, and provides insight into key information technology planning issues, especially those related to patient records and health center data, essential to disaster survival and recovery.

Access Family Care (AFC), a community health center serving southwest Missouri at four sites, including two in the city of Joplin, sustained the May 2011 tornado that pummeled the area, devastating Joplin and the surrounding communities.  Despite catastrophic damage to the Joplin area, AFC was able to continue serving patients because of its comprehensive disaster planning and robust electronic medical record (EMR) system. While other providers, including the local hospital, were nearly demolished, the center’s physical plant remained intact and the health information technology platform enabled it to play an integral role in post-disaster response and recovery, as well as the ongoing provision of primary medical and dental care to adults and children in the community.

After reviewing and evaluating various options, the center selected NeoTech Solutions, an experienced local IT consulting firm based in Joplin, MO, which offered a hosted solution including a “virtual desktop” environment to assist them with the HIT implementation process. NeoTech was able to offer creative and cost-effective options for the center, including smart-card technology, which allows providers to access software and applications from any terminal or device at the point they left off, without needing a repeat log-in. NeoTech was integral to the center’s EMR adoption process and from the inception of the project three years ago, AFC’s core IT systems and applications, including its EMR (GE Centricity) and electronic dental record (Dentrix), have been hosted through NeoTech and maintained at a secure off-site data center.

The article appears in the April 2012 edition of the
Online Journal of Public Health Informatics Vol 4, No 1, and can be accessed here: http://ojphi.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/ojphi/article/view/3818/3214

Please check out the video case study that VMWare and Intel put together for us.  The video highlights a project we completed for Access Family Care  of Neosho, Missouri.

Recently, NeoTech Solutions designed and implemented a complete solution for electronic medical records utilizing virtual desktop technology.  We then partnered with technology distributor Seneca Data  for all the required hardware including an Intel Modular Server.  Seneca Data chose the project to be the subject of a case study to highlight the use of the Intel Modular Server in a virtual desktop environment.  This platform is perfect for virtualization projects and is surprisingly affordable.  Read the complete case study here:

http://www.senecadata.com/Libraries/Misc_PDFs/CS_neotech.sflb.ashx

Congratulations to NeoTech Solutions – Winner of the Intel® Modular Server and VMware* VI Case Study Contest

NeoTech Solutions Inc. of Missouri was selected as the official winner of the Intel® Modular Server and VMware Virtual Infrastructure Customer Success Story contest. Upon hearing his company was the winner, NeoTech’s David Endicott stated that their team considered it a critical opportunity for their company. The abstract features Ozark Tri-County Healthcare in Neosho, MO and the design and implementation of an Electronic Medical Records system using Intel Modular Server with VMware Virtual Infrastructure. As the winner of the contest, NeoTech will receive an Intel Modular Server platform loaded with VMware* VMotion and VMware* Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS) software from VMware, an all-expense-paid video case study showcasing their story, and a VMware* Workstation 6 software license.

NeoTech is headed to vmworld 2011 in fabulous Las Vegas! We will have 2 engineers at the conference August 29th through September 1st. There are sure to be plenty of announcements, news, and great new features from VMWare and other vendors. With the release of vsphere 5 just around the corner, this conference should be exciting and packed with information.

We will be cramming classes, labs, and meetings into our heads for 12 hours a day for the next week. I can’t wait! All throughout the conference we will be blogging live with any new updates or exciting news. Check back here often to see what we are seeing, who we are meeting, and what we are learning. Just click on the vmworld 2011 link on the right to check it out. It’s going to be intense, but fun!

NeoTech in Growth Mode

Since the tornado back in May, we have been busy helping our customers recover as well as moving our offices to a new location. We have relocated to 2131 east 32nd street, suite 2.

Our new offices are fully setup and we are focused on the future. With the high demand for our services, especially in cloud computing, virtual servers and virtual workstations, we are actively seeking candidates to fill 2 open positions. One is a full time mid-level technician and the other is a full time receptionist/office clerical position. Both jobs include a competitive salary and benefits package. For all the details please go to; www.neotechsolutions.com/employment

AngelVision – Tornado Relief Effort

Our friends at AngelVision put together this short video message to bring attention to the devastation caused by the recent tornadoes in Joplin and Tuscaloosa.  I invite you to pass this along to whomever you think can help make a difference.

http://www.AngelVisionCares.com

Take a look at this storm chaser video of the tornado that destroyed 30% of the city of Joplin along with the NeoTech offices.  At the end of this video, the cars stop only 3 Blocks from what is left of our building.

EF5 Tornado Tears Through Joplin

Before I write anything else, please let me say this: Our hearts and thoughts are with the people of Joplin, Missouri.  My family and I have deep roots here that go back at least 4 generations.  The EF5 tornado that tore through the center of our city on Sunday the 22^nd of May has left a scar not only on the land, but on our collective heart.  We mourn for the dead, we suffer with the injured, we weep with the sorrowful, and we feel guilt for being the lucky ones.

We were blessed.  When the tornado struck, all of the members of the NeoTech Family were at home taking cover and listening to the weather reports.  Some of us had some pretty serious damage to our homes.  Others, like me, live far enough away that our homes were undamaged.  The greatest blessing for us is that none of us or our families were injured as a result of the storm.  Our offices however, were just at the southern most edge of the tornado as it crossed Main street headed east.  As you can see from the picture above, only the north half of the building remains.  This is due to the extra support provided by our datacenter which is in that part of the building.

Our datacenter did its job and just like during our fire of only 14 months ago, we suffered no data loss.  In fact, once we arrived at the building, the datacenter was still up and running.  We shut things down so we could re-locate them to a safe location.  The next few hours were a whirlwind of activity as we moved our entire datacenter and brought all of the systems back online.  In less than 12 hours, the systems were functional.  The doctors and dentists that use our electronic health records systems were able to get to the critical information they needed, with no loss of data and without the delay of restoring from backup.

Now the reality of what has happened is starting to sink in.  In the next few days we will be moving to a temporary office, re-outfitting our people with the tools they need to succeed and starting on the plan for our new office and data center.  As I stated only 14 months ago when our office was heavily damaged by fire, we will rebuild and we will be back better and stronger for having gone through it.

We are committed to providing the businesses of the Joplin area with the best in cutting edge information systems and support.  We made it through our fire, and we will make it through this tragic event as well.

As John D. Rockefeller once said, “I do not think there is any other quality so essential to success of any kind as the quality of perseverance. It overcomes almost everything, even nature.”

Amen.

Remodeled Building, Remodeled Logo

It has been almost a year since our fire here at NeoTech.  During that time, most business plans went on hold while we focused on our recovery.  But now, we are finally ready to put our plans back on the front burner and get back into growth mode.  We are working to fill two job openings now, a help desk agent and a Sales Representative, with more to come soon.  Please take a look at the ads and if you know anyone who would be a good fit, let them know.

Our building has been completely remodeled.  Our datacenter has been rebuilt, remodeled, and upgraded with the latest technology.  Our offices are back to normal and we are ready to put the fire behind us and get back to what we do best, looking forward and helping our customers navigate through the treacherous waters of information technology.

Our economy is forcing businesses to be extra frugal.  A well designed and maintained technology infrastructure can help a business control costs and make the most of every technology dollar spent.  By embracing cloud computing, hosted services, virtualization, software as a service (SAAS), and other technologies, businesses of all sizes can reduce the dollars spent on technology and increase the return on investment.  In today’s uncertain economic conditions, this is more important than ever.

Contact NeoTech solutions today and learn how we can help you with your technology needs.