Hackensack Meridian Health
Hackensack Meridian Health
Hackensack Meridian Health successfully migrated over 30,000 endpoints from Windows to ChromeOS. Learn how HMH test-piloted Ricoh Document Scanners’ native SANE driver with Google ChromeOS and Citrix, delivering a secure, reliable experience, and full white-glove deployment for thousands of devices, users, and patients across the organization.
Chris Larson was a senior technical project manager contractor with Hackensack Meridian Health (HMH) in 2019 when a serious security breach occurred across its platform. Determined to prevent it from happening again, the flagship healthcare organization set out to implement a tightly secure system to safeguard it.
As a top healthcare organization in the U.S., Hackensack Meridian Health encompasses 18 hospitals, 500 care locations, and 45,000 end points. The large healthcare organization required trusted system security that was simple to migrate and deploy. Meeting these requirements for the enormous provider was no small feat.
Barriers: Deploying in a 24/7 Healthcare Setting
Healthcare facilities are never “off,” and HMH required a system that could meet every requirement of an always-on environment for every stakeholder.
- Administrators - for nominal changes to their workflows and no changes in access to their apps
- IT - for less updates, no hardware headaches, and low recovery time
- Executives - for scalability, and on-track cost implementation
“It was a daunting task,” Larson admitted. In HMH’s case, like many healthcare organizations (HCOs), driver updates with peripherals and devices can become mismatched and hard to manage. Add to that, the critical need to be consistent in security protocols across varied department and in-take environments, the org needed a comprehensive solution.
Hackensack partnered with Google to move from their security-compromised system to ChromeOS. With zero ransomware or virus threats, the operating system was the obvious choice. But they also wanted to ensure a more seamless deployment across devices, peripherals and all their end points.
Google’s team sought out partners with equally high standards that could meet their rigorous protocols and qualifications. As a longtime Ricoh Scanner enterprise customer, HMH relied on the scanners for their consistency and leading image capture. As a result, Ricoh Document Scanners, combined with Citrix’s seamless app environment, were the clear choice to help pilot Hackensack’s new solution.
Sane Driver for ChromeOS
To optimize migration, IT management, and a full-scale deployment across thousands of endpoints, Ricoh developed the first native SANE driver built specifically for ChromeOS which created multiple benefits:
- Seamless ChromeOS integration
- Google “Works with Chromebooks” document scanner certification
- Easier digitization workflows with less steps and faster start-up time
- Modernizing legacy systems at less cost
- AI-readiness and automation with Ricoh’s precise image capture
Not Just “Getting it Done.”
Google’s mission was to ensure the team met every critical aspect of healthcare security. The partnership embraced a three-fold objective: rock-solid security, seamless operations, and simplified digitization for the patient and provider experience.
What is a SANE Driver?
Ricoh Document Scanners Enable Healthcare
Ricoh’s native Scanner Access Now Easy (SANE) drivers, built for ChromeOS, are device drivers with image-processing capabilities that work seamlessly with document capture applications.
The Ricoh fi-8170, fi-800R, and fi-8040 are now Works With Chromebook certified, making them the first document scanners to drive innovation in digitization and enhance cloud collaboration on Chromebooks.
Larson explained that even before they worked with Google, they approached the migration in several steps: (quote)
- Hackensack created a comprehensive list of use cases.
- Next, they segmented the project by hardware, peripherals, and workflows.
- Finally, they prioritized migration use cases.
The large HCO created their own test lab with their legacy system and ChromeOS endpoints and began reviewing all the device configurations while they updated and demoed all their workflows with Ricoh, Google, and Citrix.
Over the course of the multi-year project, each partner organization contributed to refining the security solution for healthcare:
- HMH rigorously ran thousands of tests
- Tests included secure personal identification digitization on Ricoh scanners, and revalidating critical workflows.
- HMH began with the easiest and largest cases, which encompassed 30,000 office administrator workflows and shared clinical devices for processing electronic medical records (EMR).
- More complex use cases, which included scanning, patient e-consent workflows, and all processes that required USB peripherals.
Larson noted that employees and users felt no significant difference; their apps and workflows were the same and they needed no extensive retraining on their central office-based and registration workflows.
Larson affirmed that the entire process has been a transformative one. “Management updates and server updates have been a breeze. That didn’t happen in our ‘old world.”
The most critical benefits include:
- Thousands of highly secured endpoints with no ransomware attacks
- Simplified device compatibility with Ricoh's built-in SANE driver on ChromeOS
- Smoother deployment with minimal training on CITRIX’s familiar app workspace
The process resulted in a significant leap forward, particularly for IT. From one-minute updates to faster system and workflow recovery, the solution has lowered escalation. “Users love that they don't have to change anything, nothing really changed from their perspective. If there are issues, or a recovery process, because of ChromeOS, they don’t have to worry about driver configurations, they really like the change,” said Larson.
Next Steps
Currently, HMH’s progress and next steps include:
- The pilot program has been running successfully for 2 months with no issues
- Strong collaboration credited for the program’s success
- HMH plans to roll out about 4,000 ChromeOS scanning and registration devices over the next six months
- HMH’s pilot serving as a testing ground for other organizations, benefiting the wider system
"It’s been an excellent experience; we definitely could not have done this on our own." — Larson
To roll out about 4,000 ChromeOS scanning and registration devices over the next six months, Larson confirmed. Because of everyone’s dedicated work, “The pilot is now going for 2 months, no issues at our pilot facilities," said Larson. “It’s been an excellent experience, we definitely could not have done this on our own,” he said. Serving as a testing ground for other organizations, HMH’s experience has paid off across the entire system.
View the Ricoh Webcast with Hackensack Meridian Health, Google, and Citrix.
