[ SITUATION ] The Medical Center of Aurora faced a daunting set of challenges: the hospital's Meditech application, which the hospital's nursing staff had previously accessed via dumb terminals, now needed to be deployed in a Windows-based PC environment. In addition, new purchasing management software, MediBuy, needed to be deployed in an environment with access to a web browser. Other administrative requirements were increasing the need for more PCs overall. The impact was 1,500 new PCs that needed to be set up, customized, and supported. The primary users of the network, the nursing staff, were self-proclaimed computer novices who required an extremely user-friendly technology environment. The IT staff had to remain unchanged at 5 people - no new hires were allowed. [ APPROACH ] Enterprise Systems worked with the Medical Center of Aurora to implement a pilot program using thin-client terminals in its three campuses. To run the new 32-bit Windows version of Meditech, Enterprise Systems turned to NCD's software, ThinPATH PC. This software enables a PC to function as a thin client, while still retaining the ability to function as a PC - but in a centrally controlled manner. Once installed, NCD ThinPATH PC would allow applications to run locally or from the Citrix MetaFrame XP server farm or any other application host. This would enable applications like MediBuy to be deployed rapidly and operate in an environment with access to a web browser. Enterprises Systems also used the NCD ThinPATH Management Portal to ensure PC's would also be able to be administered by the IT staff remotely across the Internet. This would lessen disruptions to users and make sure all PC's could be easily updated with the latest software and configuration settings. [ RESULTS ] ThinPATH Management Portal provides a single point of administration for the IT team to install software, updates or patches, and completely eliminates the need for manual software installation and configuration at the desktop. The software allows them to easily manage the ever-increasing number of applications and provide superior user support, all with a very small IT staff working in a highly distributed environment, consisting of three separate campuses. The IT team is able to customize access for each user to make their experience more user-friendly. For example, a nurse manager can now log on to his or her desktop from any of the ThinPATH PC terminals in the hospital with restricted access to only necessary applications. 800 new PCs have been deployed with zero increase in their support staff. The solution has worked so well that The Medical Center of Aurora plans to deploy the software on all 1500+ desktops on all three campuses. The Help Desk organization now spends less time supporting the "Thinnified" PCs than they used to with the old dumb terminals. "NCD ThinPATH PC has already made us a much more efficient department. The ability to set up and manage PCs from a centralized location is a huge advantage for us. We used to have to configure everything at the nurses' stations, but now we can deploy everything from our IT shop. We can set up 15 devices in 30 minutes. This causes a lot less aggravation for the nursing staff. We're not in their way, and we can begin training them as soon as we plug in. It's truly a plug and play solution." —Steve Pratt, Network Administrator, The Medical Center of Aurora