“This has been nothing short of amazing for us and the patients in our care.”
– KYLE RUCKER: DIRECTOR OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
STREAMLINING IT OPERATIONS
HENRY HOOKER ALIVE CONNECT
Over the past three years, Alive Hospice deployed hundreds of ‘Tele-Hospice’ iPads to patients who prefer to receive palliative care in their own home, rather than in a traditional hospice location. The technology enables Alive Hospice care workers to have daily video calls with their patients over an app specifically designed by Alive Hospice.
This investment was possible thanks to a very generous donation, and the solution is aptly known as “Henry Hooker Alive Connect” in recognition of the donor. These Tele-Hospice iPads have been a wonderful innovation for patients, but with the advent of COVID-19, they became mission-critical and brought unexpected benefits.
Alive Hospice is not-for-profit entity relying on donations, so it is always mindful of external spend and operates in a highly efficient, lean manner. This includes IT infrastructure and support. Until recently, the IT team used one system to set-up laptops / desktops and a different system to set-up iPads and mobile devices. Each device required over 60 minutes of manual work from an experienced IT person.
MDM spend reduced by 15%
ZERO TOUCH PROVISIONING
Mobile Mentor assisted Alive Hospice to implement Zero-Touch Provisioning – the ability to configure a new laptop / iPad / smartphone, without anyone from IT having to touch the device before the user opens the box.
The objective of Zero Touch Provisioning was to eliminate the 60 minutes of manual provisioning with an automatic configuration of a new laptop or iPad.
Mobile Mentor worked alongside the team at Alive to configure Microsoft Intune and set-up the relevant security policies and devices profiles for Windows and Apple devices. Once configured, Alive placed an order for 30 new Surface laptops running Windows 10 to test the new process.
Time on device provisioning reduced by 90%
UNBOXING EXPERIENCE FOR A NEW SURFACE LAPTOP
Joe Hampe is the COO and was the first person to test the new process. He unboxed a new Windows 10 machine and turned it on. He connected it to Wi-Fi, entered his Active Directory credentials and then watched as the laptop started to self-configure.
It downloaded updates to Windows and Office 365, installed 3rd party applications and was fully configured and ready to use within 30 minutes.
“This is a huge breakthrough for us, we are thrilled, and we can now migrate 1,000 devices to Intune.”
– KYLE RUCKER: DIRECTOR OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
TELE-HOSPICE IPADS FOR COVID-19
The rapid spread of COVID-19 presents unparalleled challenges to all hospice operators. Chaplains, nurses and social workers, who comfort and care for patients are severely restricted from visiting patients in their homes. This isolation creates challenges at every hospice, rest home and community care home around the world.
Fortunately, Alive Hospice was able to use the Tele-Hospice iPads as the bridge between isolated patients and their care workers. Chaplains, nurses and social workers were able to see their patients on video, provide advice on medications and generally provide compassion and virtual companionship to their patients.
This was so successful that Alive decided to provision 160 additional iPads and was able to do this rapidly using the Zero-Touch Provisioning solution configured by Mobile Mentor. Alive also deployed dozens of extra laptops and iPads to care workers so that everybody was digitally enabled. This meant that care workers were able to stay safe while still providing compassionate care to their patients.
“This has been nothing short of amazing for us and the patients in our care. We are very grateful for the donation that made this possible. Also, working with Mobile Mentor has been terrific, and we are excited to move forward to the next step of our technology journey.”
– KYLE RUCKER: DIRECTOR OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
ABOUT ALIVE HOSPICE
Alive Hospice is a not-for -profit organization dedicated with three core goals: providing comprehensive care for terminally ill patients and their families; offering support for grieving adults and children; and serving the community as a center for research and education.
Alive Hospice serves more than 3,600 patients and their families annually (more than 430 daily) and provides grief support services for nearly 600 adults and children in Middle Tennessee, USA in addition to training for tomorrow’s caregivers and education for the community at large.
