Brookhaven Memorial Saves More Than $400,000 The First Year With Toshiba VoIP System

December 26th, 2017 by admin

Brookhaven Memorial Hospital Medical Center is a 321-bed acute-care, voluntary not-for-profit community hospital. It is comprised of the main campus, two community multi-disciplinary health centers, and its expanded Hemodialysis Program, Home Health and Hospice/Bereavement Services, as well as an off-site ambulatory Women's Imaging Center. Brookhaven Memorial is located in East Patchogue, New York. With Toshiba's Strata CIX VoIP system, Brookhaven Memorial saved $224,000 in the first year by cutting monthly phone costs by $12,000 and retaining the investment of its older Toshiba system by re-using existing equipment, which saved an additional $80,000. The hospital expects an ongoing annual savings of $144,000.

MISSION: Cut Phone Costs; Improve User Experience; Maintain 24/7 Reliability

Don Fleming, CIO, and Scott Weber, telecom manager, at Brookhaven Memorial, specified a system that would:

• Effectively handle the hospital's 300,000 monthly incoming calls
• Reduce communication costs;
• Improve the overall user experience; and
• Provide 24/7 reliability.

Brookhaven's IT team turned to Black Box Network Services of Amityville, New York, an Authorized Toshiba Dealer for more than 30 years. Chris Gibbons, VP of Black Box Network Services of Amityville, New York, recommended Toshiba's Strata® CIX™ business communication system. Toshiba backs up its reliability with the industry's longest manufacturer's extended warranty, allowing customers to build the warranty into the overall cost of the system. Fleming and Weber were already sold on Toshiba as the hospital had used Toshiba telecom systems since the early 1990s. In fact, Black Box has been the hospital's Authorized Toshiba Dealer for more than 20 years. Solution: Toshiba Strata CIX Exceeds Hospital's Goals Installed by Black Box Network Services, Brookhaven Memorial has a network of Strata CIX IP business telephone systems at seven locations throughout the East Patchogue, New York area. The system includes:

• More than 2,500 ports spread across the seven locations;
• Three Strata CIX1200 systems at the hospital's main location;
• One Strata CIX670 at the back office;
• One Strata CIX100 system at its wound care and bariatric center;
• Three remote fiber cabinets;
• A mix of digital and analog telephones; and
• Polycom SpectraLink 3000 wireless telephone system with 200 wireless handsets, which gives doctors and nurses mobile telephones without disrupting delicate hospital equipment.

All the systems are networked together over IP using Toshiba's Strata Net. Result #1: Remote Administration for More Control Using Toshiba's Network eManager® remote administration tool, Weber can now remotely manage the entire telephone system from his desk. He can also troubleshoot issues more effectively since he has more control over the system. Weber said, "I am no longer at the mercy of the telephone company to fix problems or make changes. I can now administrate the system from my desktop and make moves, adds and changes on the fly without waiting for a service call and without any service charges." Result #2: Improved User Experience Now with the new Strata CIX system, hospital personnel can easily program telephone features and integrate with other applications such as Microsoft® OCS. They can facilitate Unified Messaging and receive their faxes on their computers along with their emails and voice messages. The system has also enabled direct extension dialing, caller ID and message waiting lights, all of which help improve efficiently. "With the new system, everything is easier and more intuitive for our employees, which helps them be more efficient and lessens the load on the IT team to keep things working," Weber said. Result #3: Unified Messaging Improves User Experience Brookhaven Memorial eliminated $22,000 in monthly Centrex costs by moving to PRI lines and reducing costs for maintenance. It also reduced the pressure on the network capacity. In addition, migrating from older Toshiba Strata DK484 systems saved the hospital in excess of $150,000 over buying a new system. Staying with Toshiba allowed it to re-use its existing digital and analog telephones as well as system cards. Bottom Line: $110,000 Savings the First Year; $10,000 Savings Annually Thereafter Toshiba's Strata CIX IP business telephone system has helped Brookhaven Memorial meet its goal of reducing its communication costs, improving user experience, and providing exceptional reliability. Brookhaven Memorial savings includes:

• $22,000 in monthly phone costs by moving from Centrex to PRI lines, for a total of $264,000 annually;
• $10,000 annual savings by performing routine maintenance themselves, eliminating service calls;
• First-year total savings of more than $110,000; and
• Ongoing annual savings of $10,000 per year.

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