Health computers are busy ones

The Sunrise Health Region Board had an update on its Corporate Services Portfolio from vice-president Lorelei Stusek.

The portfolio is a diverse one covering information management, building services and operational support services.

In terms information the vision is a simple one "Get the right information to the right person at the right time," said Stusek.

When it comes to information technology in health, Stusek said it is a challenge simply keeping ahead of change, and serving growing demand upon the system.

The Region currently has 3,292 network and email users, 1322 computers, and 130 virtual servers.

With so many users the system load is immense.

As an example the Barracuda software has blocked 3,225,052 spam emails. Almost a one million increase year to year, said Stusek.

A total of 651,000 viruses were detected and blocked by the Central Virus Management System.

Backing up information is also a critical aspect of the system, offered Stusek.

And an additional two Terabytes of data (since June 2011) is now backed up monthly. The total data being backed up is 4.32 Terabytes.

The system is facing challenges with growing demand, said Stusek, including having adequate staffing to meet all the priorities and demands.

As a result Stusek's reported noted a total of 6,500 hours of recurring tasks that we have not attended to. A trend of too many recurring tasks means important maintenance tasks are having to be dropped because of fires or many projects.