Jewish Hospital & St. Mary's Healthcare
Renowned hospital system depends on Windstream to care for its communications network
Background
Jewish Hospital & St. Mary’s HealthCare in Louisville, Ky., like all healthcare facilities, is in the business of healing. The hospital system, known for several medical firsts including the world’s first successful hand transplant, needed some healing of its own several years ago and found the solution with the Windstream team in Lexington, Ky.
“Communication is critical in any work place but most especially a hospital where lives are on the line everyday,” said Bob Greenwell, assistant director of network operations for the hospital system. “And with about 12,000 phone lines throughout the hospital system it is imperative that we receive the best possible products and services to care for our patients.”
According to Greenwell, JHSMH was not getting the level of telecommunications service demanded of a premier heart and transplant hospital, so he went looking for a change.
“The sales support was spotty with our previous phone equipment vendor,” Greenwell says. “Our sales representative just wouldn’t return a phone call. The first opportunity we had to get out of that relationship, we did.”
Not long afterward, in 1997, Windstream began serving JHSMH, now one of Windstream’s largest out-of-territory customers.
Solutions
Today, Windstream maintains and services several Nortel PBX systems serving JHSMH, plus one carrier remote and one fiber remote, along with approximately 80 Norstar key systems. Windstream also provides local access services to one of the system’s hospitals located in nearby Shepherdsville, Ky. The Shepherdsville site is connected to the main hospital in Louisville via a one-gigabit data pipe.
“The customer service and support is excellent with Windstream,” said Greenwell. “The company is flexible, and our sales rep is close by. If there is ever a problem or concern or a need, I have Windstream feet on the street here, literally.”
The ‘feet on the street’ refers to three full-time Windstream customer service technicians who are solely dedicated to serving JHSMH. In fact, the hospital serves as their daily base of operation.
“We turn things around quickly,” says Herman Thomas, Windstream’s director of business solutions in Kentucky. “We are a good advocate of Jewish Hospital & St. Mary’s HealthCare within Windstream, and we give them the service they expect for the dollars they pay. It’s a relationship we’re committed to maintaining.”
Results
The relationship between Windstream and Jewish Hospital & St. Mary’s HealthCare has flourished in the last decade. As the hospital system has grown—adding facilities, specialties and doctors—they have relied on Windstream for expanded communications connectivity and expertise.
If your business is interested in implementing similar technologies, please call Windstream at 888-673-WIND (9463) or speak to your current Windstream account executive to learn more.
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