Novell Secure Identity Management Puts Critical Information in the Right Hands at Mount Sinai NYU Health

With more than 17 hospitals, nine long-term care facilities and four community physician practices, the most extensive health system in the New York metro area was faced with an interesting challenge. While Mount Sinai NYU Health's widespread operations helped the organization meet the healthcare needs of one of the world's biggest cities, it also left the health system with a very complex network.

That complex infrastructure made it difficult for Mount Sinai NYU Health's 10,000 highly mobile employees to access network resources, and it forced those employees to step through a number of log-ins. For Mount Sinai NYU Health, simplifying its network was not just a matter of eliminating administrative headaches, but also improving patient care by ensuring the right people had timely access to the right resources. For that, the health system turned to a customized portal and a Secure Identity Management solution from Novell.

An Identity-Based Solution
To provide better access to hospital information and resources like operating room schedules and in the near future, medical billing, Mount Sinai NYU Health developed a corporate portal. In order to be secure and effective, however, the portal needed a way to verify the identities of users, and it had to provide sufficient integration with backend systems. A Secure Identity Management solution from Novell met these needs with a customized mix of software and professional services.

This solution has enabled Mount Sinai NYU Health to eliminate the costly and repetitive task of manually creating and modifying user identity profiles throughout the organization's various systems, significantly decreasing administrative costs, strengthening security and streamlining user access to the corporate portal. This flexible, scalable identity infrastructure also enables Mount Sinai NYU Health employees to authenticate to the corporate portal and other applications, without wasting valuable time stepping through multiple login screens and password requests. With faster, easier access to hospital data and resources, Mount Sinai NYU Health physicians and staff members are able to offer better, more efficient care to patients.

"The Secure Identity Management solution that Novell developed allowed us to dramatically decrease the time required to create and modify user identities across enterprise applications," said Sean Welsh, Mount Sinai NYU Health System Core Engineering Distributed Systems Infrastructure director. "That integration not only lowers our administration costs and frees our IT staff to focus on more strategic projects, but it also gives employees immediate access to the systems they need and ensures security at the same time. Once a user's identity profile is added or modified in any of the integrated systems, that information is updated to all the other applications and databases.

"The solution also addresses the challenge of juggling multiple passwords - a headache for users and the helpdesk alike," Welsh said. "On average, we've been able to reduce the number of passwords users manage from four to one, which makes a real difference in how quickly and securely they can access the data they need."

Mount Sinai NYU Health's solution uses Novell® eDirectory™, Novell DirXML® and Novell's consulting expertise to provide a rapid return on investment by leveraging the organization's existing infrastructure, rather than requiring a rip-and-replace of existing systems or business processes.

Ian Dunlop, vice president of Novell's Provisioning Services and Solutions Group, said, "In the healthcare industry, each second counts - so it's critical that healthcare professionals have timely, secure access to the information and resources they need to help their patients. Novell's Net business solutions have helped Mount Sinai NYU Health ensure that immediate access and provide enterprise-wide security. This Secure Identity Management solution is not about technology for technology's sake; it's about simplifying a complex network and allowing a health system to better serve its patients."

About Novell
Novell, Inc. (Nasdaq: NOVL) is the leading provider of Net business solutions designed to secure and power the networked world. Novell and its eServices company, Cambridge Technology Partners, help organizations solve complex business challenges, simplify their systems and processes, leverage emerging Web services, and capture new opportunities with one Net solutions. Novell provides worldwide channel, developer, consulting and education programs to support its offerings. For more information on Novell solutions and services, contact Novell's Customer Response Center at (888) 321-4CRC (4272) or visit http://www.novell.com. Press can find Novell announcements and company information at http://www.novell.com/pressroom.

Novell and DirXML are registered trademarks, Cambridge Technology Partners is a registered service mark, and eDirectory is a trademark of Novell, Inc. in the United States and other countries. *All third-party trademarks are the property of their respective owners.