Major New England Hospital Provides Remote Access with Barr's ESCON Adapter
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Maine Medical Center (MMC), the largest hospital in northern New England, began as a small general hospital in 1874. The initial facility housed forty beds and served just 114 patients its first year. After several mergers with local healthcare centers and a series of construction and renovation projects, Maine Medical Center has become a million-square-foot institution, incorporating dozens of specialized programs and clinics.
A dedicated teaching and research hospital, it has active graduate, undergraduate, and nursing education programs. Research focuses on application to patient care and takes place at the affiliated research institute, in clinical areas throughout the hospital, and in the offices of attending physicians.
With so many separate clinics, research centers, and off-site physician offices, there is a strong need for file sharing and data communication among hospital departments and individuals. This is accomplished through NetLink, an integrated network program, and Barr Systems' network communication product, BARR/CHANNEL for SNA Server with ESCON. With the ESCON adapter, NetLink is able to provide LU6.2 access to the hospital's mainframe-based patient care system, TDS7000. And, it does it at faster speeds and longer distances than the Bus & Tag connections.
According to the medical center's Systems Integration (SI) Specialist, the ESCON solution's fiber-optic technology, which allows greater range and flexibility, is what the hospital considers to be its most valuable asset.
"We wanted to be able to provide a separate channel for our backup server that would be relocatable outside of our primary computing facility," he said. "The ESCON channel adapter from Barr offered this capability."
According to the SI Specialist, Barr Systems' solution for the SNA Server also provides support for their Host Explorer and web-based 3270 emulator products. He believes that, while flexibility was a key consideration, savings was also a factor. He found the BARR/CHANNEL with ESCON adapter to be less expensive than other comparable solutions.
The medical center has served, in one form or another, as a community hospital for the greater Portland area for the last century, and it continues to be a focal point for the development of healthcare in Maine, today. It is a recent, and valued, addition to the ever-increasing client family of Barr Systems, Inc. And, if the previous comments are any indication, Barr will be serving the hospitals needs well into the next century.
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