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Close collaboration turns introduction of Single Sign-On at German hospitals into success stories

London, 29^th January 2015: With German healthcare organisations increasingly adopting digital solutions, expectations around accelerated and more efficient workflows are also increasing. Undoubtedly, the deployment of different information systems is contributing to this improvement, but there remains a caveat: to enable quicker processes, logging into these systems has to be fast and convenient. Yet, in many hospital environments, physicians and nurses are required to continually log in to and out of a multiple of systems. And, in order to comply with security requirements, the passwords they use are different. This is leading to the situation where, rather than increasing efficiency, it has made the process of accessing information very time consuming, particularly in hectic working environments. In order to address this, the hospitals Klinikum Stuttgart and Zollernalb Klinikum have implemented Caradigm’s Single-Sign On solution (SSO), which supports quick and secure access to data across system boundaries, as well as a rapid user switching.

Gerhard Härdter, Head, Service Center IT, Klinikum Stuttgart, describes the typical workflow preceding the introduction of the system: “On average, each of our departments worked with two dedicated systems in addition to the hospital information system (HIS). Users had to memorise a password for each system, and to log in and out time and again as part of their daily routine. Delays automatically led to queues in front of the computers.”

Waldemar Potratz, Head IT and SAP Basis, Zollernalb Klinikum, has also identified the ability of Caradigm’s SSO solution to support compliance with data privacy regulations:

And the word is spreading: demand from wards where the SSO solution is not yet in use is huge.

The Implementation

At Klinikum Stuttgart, Caradigm has also proven itself; the solution was first introduced at the hospital’s medical service centre for radiotherapy, which has 70 workstations. Within the centre, five core applications are integrated, including the hospital information system (HIS), the radiology information system (RIS), the picture archiving and communication system (PACS), as well as a dedicated application for radiotherapy – all of which are of different ages and run on differing operating systems. “This was an initial challenge which Caradigm passed with flying colours,” says Härdter.

The implementation process was smooth, which quickly led to good user acceptance.“ Our physicians are able to log in more quickly and securely, and they can access all of the information immediately. This is of particular benefit in outpatient wards with a high patient throughput. Quick user switching is also supported, which is a positive aspect in radio-oncology where security requirements are high”, explains the head of the Service Centre IT. The next step the hospital will take is to roll out Caradigm SSO on a campus-wide basis.

Meeting Expectations

To date, Zollernalb Klinikum has integrated eight applications – and it considers its expectations regarding Caradigm and the solution to be fully met.

There is also positive feedback from the care provider in Stuttgart regarding close collaboration and transparent communication. “This was a key contributing factor for us in being able to provide a solution with extreme stability and high availability. This collaboration has re-enforced our conviction that Caradigm was the partner of choice to help us realise this project,“ confirms Gerhard Härdter. Waldemar Potratz adds: “Our perception had been that the introduction of SSO was going to be challenging; we are now surprised to find out how smoothly this changeover has turned out.”

To learn more about Caradigm’s Single Sign-On solution click here