A healthcare facility, even more so if within one of the most populated regions in Italy, is a complex, articulated and crucial reality ideal for testing an Application Performance Monitoring tool. . It is the challenge faced and overcome by Sorint.lab, ready to demonstrate the validity of its skills and choices, in total harmony with the client, in a Health Authority in one of the main capitals of Lombardy.
A challenging mission in several aspects, in one of the most varied scenarios possible. Between a large data center, connected medical equipment with few compromises on availability, the management of surgeries and reservations, without forgetting a part still administered important in terms of number of users, the commitment is one that is difficult to even compare.
The CUP can’t wait
In particular, expectations are also high. In this specific case, oriented towards the management of the Single Booking System, the CUP, an access point for patients and the nerve centre of the entire organizational and IT structure. The solution to be identified had to guarantee the ability to cover any eventuality to avoid service blockages, the management of services provided by third parties and integrated into the process, the ability to quickly identify problems, to activate the related interventions and finally, the identification of the correct sizing of the IT infrastructure, in order to avoid wasting resources.
From the initial phase of discussion with all the parties involved, Sorint.lab has identified Dynatrace as the ideal starting point around which to build the tailor-made solution. A safe choice, validated by Gartner’s opinion as the main supplier on the market. Furthermore, available tools and skills have proven to be suitable for guaranteeing what is required: an instant and complete vision of applications, services, infrastructure, database access and user experience.
Among the most widespread problems of a large healthcare facility, often growing inorganically over time, were in fact several potential causes of waste and reduced performance. For example, the need to standardize information and related containers emerged. Or, face the difficulty in sharing and comparing based on data distributed in different silos. With repercussions also on the quality and times of often urgent decisions.
A dynamic procedure was also followed for the implementation phase. Having started an initial phase of automatic tests, exploiting all the potential of Dynatrace, it was soon possible to arrive at a series of results to analyse. From these, we then moved on to powering Analytics systems capable of helping to evaluate the quality of the results and indicating where to intervene to go even further. Repeating the procedure until the desired service levels are reached.
Going into more detail, the first step was to intervene on the medical records, the internal pharmacy and the emergency room. Three critical and varied themes in terms of availability and characteristics. During the testing phase, the backend part was also inserted, replacing a previous solution. At this point, we moved from the simulation to the operational part, leaving ample space for the first feedback from users. Useful for starting customization of the APM system.
Having entered full service, the system was then kept under close observation for the time necessary to verify alignment with specifications. Always with a careful eye, however, to grasp clues for possible improvements, especially in search of unexpected slowdowns, the occurrence of exceptions and integration with external services.
The best care
Various results have been achieved. In particular, the resolution of numerous problems related to configurations, software errors or compatibility between the many different components identified. Furthermore, it eliminated the risk of resource saturation through the ability to predict spikes and send early warning signals. On the user side, going back to the causes, unexpected slowdowns in performance have practically disappeared. Often, due to complex or unoptimized queries.
As far as IT staff are concerned, the possibility of counting on a control panel with all the information useful for identifying every slightest sign of malfunction, thanks to clear and complete indications. If necessary, with customizable dashboards, also valuable for identifying further margins for improvement and related spaces for intervention.
Above all, however, the Sorint.lab intervention was such that it turned out to be practically transparent: during installation and fine-tuning, the user didn’t notice anything except the performance benefits once the work was completed.