Formula for Success

Verteks delivers the right equipment and expertise to help Lake Medical Imaging take advantage of IP communications.

In the field of medical imaging, state-of-the-art technology combines with experience and expertise to ensure safe and accurate diagnosis and treatment. Lake Medical Imaging and Vascular Institute has been leading the way in non-hospital outpatient imaging since 1985, and in hospital-based radiology since 1965. Its radiologists are board certified and subspecialty trained, and its technologists are certified and experienced. These experts utilize the latest systems to provide patients with the highest standards of professional care, and their referring physicians with the most complete, expert diagnostic consultations.

Now Lake Medical Imaging has another high-tech tool at its disposal — a new ShoreTel IP communications system. The organization called upon Verteks Consulting to implement the ShoreTel solution to provide advanced voice communications for roughly 200 employees in three clinical sites, an administrative site and a call center.

Verteks proved that the right combination of technology and expertise is also critical to the success of an IP communications implementation. Verteks engineers have the certifications and experience needed to help Lake Medical Imaging ensure a smooth transition from its legacy phone system and maximize the value of the ShoreTel solution.

“It was one of the smoothest projects I’ve been involved with in a very long time,” said Mike Robbins, IT Director, Lake Medical Imaging and Vascular Institute. “Very little stood in our way. We were very pleased with the way the Verteks Verteks delivers the right equipment and expertise to help Lake Medical Imaging take advantage of IP communications. Formula for Success 1-877-VERTEKS  352-401-0909  www.verteks.com team implemented the ShoreTel system — and their customer service was just outstanding.”

Top Quality, Low Cost

Lake Medical Imaging had been relying upon an older TeleVantage Viewpoint phone system prior to implementing the ShoreTel system. The clinical sites shared one system that created a single point of failure for those three facilities. The administrative site had a separate system that required users to dial out to reach one of the clinical sites.

“The TeleVantage Viewpoint system was pretty much at the end of its life and we decided we’d get out of the Stone Age and into voice over IP. It has done wonders for us,” said Robbins. “Now we have a fully integrated system with four-digit extension dialing across all of our locations. Calls from the administrative site go through the IP network rather than the public phone network.”

The first step in the transition to voice over IP was to select an IP communications system. Lake Medical Imaging looked at Cisco and ShoreTel and ultimately chose the ShoreTel system for its ease of use, reliability and cost.

“The number one consideration was cost-effectiveness and return on investment. Cisco wanted us to rip out our current switching infrastructure to put in Cisco equipment. We had just bought HP ProCurve infrastructure for switching and routing, so that wasn’t going to happen,” Robbins said. “The Cisco system is also a bear to manage.

“ShoreTel is a good system. It’s reliable and easy for me and my staff to administer — a lot easier than our old TeleVantage system. I like the way the workgroup agents function and the fact that the security on the reporting is pretty granular. I can give people access to what they need without just opening the door.”

The Right Features

ShoreTel’s built-in contact center features were also important. The organization has a scheduling center with 16 agents, plus three supervisors who appreciate the data generated by the system’s reporting function. The ShoreTel system makes it easy for Robbins and his staff to provide that information.

“We have about 20 radiologists who read for us,” he said. “We read our own images as well as images from facilities that doctors send to us through the PACS (Picture Archiving Communications System). We are very busy, so it is important to have these tools.”

Redundancy and failover were also critical pieces of the puzzle. Verteks helped Robbins and his team design the system to ensure that Lake Medical Imaging never loses voice communications.

“We sat down with the Verteks engineers and determined where the various pieces needed to be to make this a redundant system,” said Robbins. “That way, if a switch goes down in one facility it will roll over to the other. Verteks Consulting’s expertise was very helpful in that regard.”

Verteks configured and implemented the ShoreTel system, and provided training for the IT team as well as end-users. The ShoreTel implementation went so well that Lake Medical Imaging also implemented a MultiTech FaxFinder right after the ShoreTel project was complete. Verteks proved, once again, that the leading- edge technology and expertise provide the formula for success.

“We have four people in IT and two in PACs, and our job is to provide the tools to help everyone in the organization succeed,” Robbins said. “Verteks and ShoreTel were a big step in the right direction for us.”