When it comes to modernizing desktop infrastructure, Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) might still be new to healthcare, but it’s already making waves across the industry.
However, like with any new technology, IT leaders are skeptical and looking to early adopters for validation that it’s truly ready for the complex needs of healthcare.
In a recent episode of Healthy as Tech, we sat down with Baptist Memorial Health Care to discuss their 18-month AVD journey. Jacob Schmidt, Senior Manager of Technical Services at Baptist, shared candidly about the positive impact they’ve seen, the bumps in the road, and the lessons learned.
Here are four pieces of advice from Baptist to help other healthcare providers exploring AVD.
1. Start With Non-Critical Use Cases
One of the Baptist team’s smartest early decisions was to begin their rollout with back-office users like finance, IT, HR, and scheduling.
Starting with lower-risk areas gave them space to experiment, test performance, and validate assumptions before extending to more complex clinical environments. It also gave them quick wins to build confidence across teams without worrying about the risk of disrupting patient care.
2. Evaluate Skill Gaps and Get Partner Support
Before rolling out the solution, Baptist had to evaluate if their team was equipped and ready to implement and manage AVD.
“We’ve got a great team here, but we didn’t have any real experience with AVD, and we had to look at augmenting our staff,” said Schmidt. “One of the first things we did was reach out to Optimum Healthcare IT and ask for help from others with that level of expertise who could upskill our folks and bring us up to speed on the newer technology.”
With expert support from Optimum and Microsoft, Baptist got AVD up and running in 18 months, giving their internal team room to learn while staying focused on other priorities.
3. Don’t Underestimate Vendor Dependencies
In healthcare, your desktop isn’t just a desktop. It’s a complex, interdependent system. That’s especially true when layering on third-party clinical tools, authentication systems, and voice technologies.
From tap-to-login tools to image management to dictation systems, many of the integrations clinicians rely on daily weren’t optimized for cloud-based virtual desktops. Baptist worked with vendors and Microsoft to troubleshoot compatibility and push for greater integration.
Their advice? Engage your vendors early and educate them on AVD. “New” is often scary in healthcare, but when vendors hear that AVD runs on Windows 11 — one of the most advanced, secure operating systems — they are quicker to come around. And if you run into roadblocks, your Microsoft rep can help address vendor concerns directly.
4. Build Feedback Loops That Work
As with any major tech transformation, success isn’t just about whether the technology was implemented and is running successfully. It’s about the user experience. Baptist made sure to put strong feedback loops in place to determine what’s working well and what isn’t. Gathering this feedback early from pilot users and escalating it to Microsoft is essential so they can quickly address the issue and ensure AVD is meeting healthcare needs.
Want to Hear the Full Story?
To hear Baptist Memorial Health Care and Microsoft go deeper on what this AVD rollout looked like from the inside and the lessons learned, check out the full Healthy as Tech episode here.
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