Because of the sheer size and scope of Saint Luke's Health System facilities and the specific need for AV system support knowledge, its internal IT team struggled to keep up with audiovisual help requests and day-to-day support needs.
The health system serves as a primary teaching hospital of the University of Missouri–Kansas City School of Medicine, and when physicians and staff had AV issues, they needed a quick response and resolution to continue their caregiving and instruction. With little to no capacity to serve the health system's AV troubleshooting needs, the organization needed to find a new solution.
FORTÉ initiated a standard PRO Support agreement with Saint Luke's Health System to help with AV needs on a project-by-project basis. On-site support was broadened when Saint Luke's key hospitals and corporate office locations found it needed full-time expertise.
With an AV technician on-site each day, we knew the client's technical needs could be more efficiently managed.
Stuart Fedt, FORTÉ Account Representative
In addition, FORTÉ looked at Saint Luke's annual spend on AV and the time spent on day-to-day support and determined the organization could save money by adding a dedicated on-site resource. The full-time resource is an FORTÉ contract worker who now serves as a permanent, on-site technician at Saint Luke's.
“With an AV technician on-site each day, we knew the client's technical needs could be more efficiently managed,†said Stuart Fedt, FORTÉ account representative. “We created a detailed job description that allows the embedded technician to provide concierge support, install basic projects and provide day-to-day troubleshooting to keep the campus's AV systems up and running at all times.â€
Saint Luke's immediately saw the benefit of having an embedded resource who could attend to the organization's AV needs. The FORTÉ System's contract technician is on campus each day and is trained to assist physicians or other staff with conference room AV needs, install digital signage displays or upgrade a conference room with a new monitor. There is no longer a need for temp staff to handle AV issues the IT team can't attend to.
The on-site tech is a better use of our audio-visual budget.
Dean Lewis, Information Services Manager at Saint Luke's Health System
"The on-site tech is a better use of our audio-visual budget," said Dean Lewis, Information Services Manager at Saint Luke's Hospital.
"With the entire organization under FORTÉ"s PRO Support agreement, we no longer have to keep track of which projects are under contract and which ones are considered 'extras.' Everything is managed under the agreement."
Now a dedicated resource is on campus constantly thinking about the organization's AV needs and ensuring everything from paging systems, to displays to on-site training is attended to. In addition, Saint Luke's has access to the FORTÉ team for backup when needed. And, when the embedded AV tech takes vacation or has a sick day, FORTÉ sends a local staff person to the campus to cover tech support duties.
"Hiring a full-time employee who is dedicated to AV technology and support is not widely implemented by organizations,†said Fedt. “But as the technological requirements grow for more applications, it takes IT staff away from other priorities. Rather than neglect an organization's AV needs, contracting with FORTÉ suddenly makes perfect sense — and it saves money in the long run."