Southwestern Hospital Group (SHG)

Scenario


You are a consultant and have been brought in to assist the Southwestern Hospital Group (SHG) with its acquisition of the Western Arizona Thoracic Care Hospital (WATCH). WATCH is a small 300-bed facility with approximately 1,500 full-time employees. The reasoning for the acquisition of this independent hospital by the for-profit SHG group was to modernize and streamline WATCH. By purchasing WATCH, SHG's cash flow could be applied to modernize and streamline the WATCH facility and it could generate some profit for the SHG chain.


WATCH is set up with a Windows NT domain with a primary domain controller (PDC) and a secondary domain controller (two of each controller). It has two Linux boxes performing print server and Domain Name System (DNS) services. There are a couple of Apache Web servers performing intranet and Internet functions. The WATCH Internet site primarily is a static Web site with contact and facility information aimed at promoting WATCH services to the community. The internal intranet is used mainly for hospital policies and procedures. Also, the employees can update employee information on WATCH's Web site.


Currently, several domains exist at WATCH. The administrative domain includes the domain controllers, the Linux DNS servers, the Apache Web servers and 10 host computers. The bookkeeping domain includes accounts payable and employee payroll and benefits processing. This domain has 50 client machines using an Oracle database. The billing domain manages patient data, accounts receivable, the Linux print servers, and 60 client computers. The patient records domain is in an in-house hospital data system that uses SQL Server 7.0 Service Pack 3 (SP3). Users feel that this system is nearing the end of its functional life. The proprietary system data is housed on an AS400 and is approximately 7 terabytes in size. In the nursing domain, there are three hosts in each of the 10 nurses' stations and an additional 12 workstations deployed at various WATCH locations for a total of 42 hosts. Backup duties are currently handled by Automated Tape Library DLT Drives storage backup, which can back up approximately 10 terabytes of data.


SHG wants to merge WATCH into its network infrastructure and centralize the administrative domain into its central administrative site in San Diego. SHG's network is a Windows 2000/2003 network with Active Directory. The patient records application will eventually be merged into SHG's DB3 database hosted on mainframes in the San Diego administrative site. SHG wants to eliminate paper patient records as soon as possible and get WATCH to use its wireless patient records and tracking application, which uses Palm handheld devices.


You will lead a team of eight administrators and network engineers consisting of three WATCH administrators and five other contractor network engineers who specialize in network migration and setup.


Assignment:


You have been asked to design and deliver a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation to your team regarding the upgrade and the integration of the WATCH network into SHG's Active Directory forest. Since your team is geographically dispersed, you must create the slides and record the presentation so that when you distribute it to your team, they can watch and listen to the recording to understand the upgrade and integration.


You will need to do the following:


•         Explain how to integrate the existing WATCH networking standards, protocols, and access methods.


•         Select which is the most appropriate protocols and access standard to use without any loss of existing functionality to the billing department, the intranet, or the existing Internet site.


•         These functionalities will be migrated later, but for now your team needs only the migration plans for the administrative and bookkeeping functions.