3 Ways Your Hospital IT Department Should Be Using The Intranet

The intranet is a system that is can be utilized by every department within your hospital. IT is one of those departments that can really take advantage of this technology to streamline processes and communicate better with staff. I have seen many different uses of the intranet from an IT perspective and will highlight my top 3 in today’s post:

Work Orders – Every IT department receives requests for everything from basic PC problems to enterprise system implementations. Keeping track of these requests and communicating the current status can be a challenge. Savvy IT managers know that provding employees a simple way to submit these requests and track status of them on their own will streamline this process and save time.The most basic way to do this is build a form on the intranet that can be submitted electronically. Be sure to have required fields to capture all the pertinent information you will need to address the request.

The better option is to use a ticket tracking system. Our intranet product comes with one out of the box, however there are many options here depending on the size of your organization and individual requirements. The key features you want to look for are self service ticket requests and tracking for employees, automated notications, customizable categories and priorities, and reporting. Implementing a work order system to streamline IT processes and automate communications will lead to increased employee satisfaction.

Document Management– This may be the single biggest headache for many IT departments. Worse yet having the documents on the shared drive is also frustrating for employees. Migrating these documents to an intranet has many benefits from and IT and end user perspetive.The biggest advantage of using the intranet is simplified security. IT no longer needs to manage permissions on folders and shares. They can simply create the security groups needed and allow the different departmental content admins to pick and choose who has access to different pages and documents.

Another huge benefit is searchability. Most intranet systems will index the entire body of the documents as well as meta data in addition to just the document title. This makes searching and locating documents easier for the staff without having dig through layers of folders. Migrating documents to an intranet is a win win for both IT and hospital staff.

Technical Resources– IT departments need an easy to use central location to provide resources to employees. The intranet is an ideal location. Here are some examples of resources you can provide your employees:

• system manuals/documentation
• FAQ’s
• links to internal and external web based systems
• system downtime/maintenance notifications
• current system status dashboards
• vendor information
• request forms
• project timelines/milestones

Providing these resources to your staff will make your life easier and encourage self service for the employees.

The intranet is an excellent tool for IT when it comes to communication and increasing employee satisfaction. If your current intranet doesn’t have the tools or capability to accomplish the items above, check out the HospitalPortal.net Intranet solution. Our out of the box system will make it easy for your IT and other departments to implement and maintain a world class intranet. The best part is that we not only offer the system but full implementation and training services so the project doesn’t become a burden to your current IT resources. Click here to learn more about our healthcare specific intranet platform.