Healthcare networks are complex, with hundreds of devices, countless systems, and critical patient data that must be managed securely and seamlessly. At RUSH University Medical Center, network infrastructure is more than just technology — it’s a life-saving tool that powers exceptional patient care.
In this episode of the Network Automation Nerds Podcast, hosted by Packet Pushers, Uzair Khan, Manager of Network Services at RUSH University Medical Center, dives into his team’s journey: automating critical network operations to support one of the nation’s leading healthcare systems. With a sprawling network that supports three hospitals and over 30 remote sites, RUSH University Medical Center faced the challenge of managing critical infrastructure while ensuring seamless, secure, on-demand patient care delivery.
Uzair shares his insights on how RUSH University Medical Center tackled these challenges with Itential and how automation has enabled their team to reduce operational bottlenecks, streamline mundane tasks, and respond quickly to critical IT needs — improving the efficiency of healthcare delivery while maintaining patient safety.
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What You’ll Learn in This Episode
- The Automation Journey: How RUSH University Medical Center embarked on their network automation transformation, from scripts to evaluating commercial vendors to implementing technology, and the unique challenges they faced along the way.
- Healthcare-Specific IT Needs: The complexities of healthcare IT, including managing devices, data, and real-time patient care systems.
- Real-Life Use Cases: From automating IP reservations to streamlining critical EMR updates, RUSH University Medical Center is leveraging automation to enhance day-to-day operations.
- Improving Incident Response: How RUSH University Medical Center is using automation to speed up response times for cybersecurity threats while maintaining regulatory compliance.
- Building Blocks for Success: The importance of starting small and growing your automation efforts to impact larger workflows and improve service delivery.
- Employee Experience & Patient Impact: How automation has improved quality of life for RUSH’s IT engineers while ensuring smoother, faster patient care.
- Expanding Automation Across IT: Uzair’s approach to expanding automation across the entire IT infrastructure, from servers to security, ensuring scalability and reliability.
How Itential Helps You Scale Automation & Streamline Operations
With integration capabilities for your systems of record and IT stack, and the ability to stitch together modular automations to orchestrate end-to-end processes, Itential minimizes the opportunities for human error while providing a framework that helps you scale.
“The game-changer for us with Itential is how it abstracts the complexity of automation. In the past, scripting and automation were intimidating because they required you to be a programmer first and a network engineer second. But with Itential, you don’t need to be a developer to create impactful automations. You can take building blocks and create workflows that solve real problems quickly and effectively, without the need for manual intervention.”
