CHIME recognizes Intermountain, VMware for BYOD program

The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) has honored Salt Lake City-based Intermountain Healthcare and its vendor partner, VMWare, for a successful collaboration that allowed clinicians to use their own mobile devices while safeguarding patient information.

Intermountain’s mobile fleet currently includes 5,000 company-owned devices and an additional 1,600 employee-owned devices--now permitted through its Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) program.

By utilizing an enterprise mobility management solution from VMware called AirWatch, Intermountain is able to execute remote actions—such as lock, locate and wiping information—on mobile devices. “Because some Intermountain employees travel between hospitals in the organization, that level of security functionality is important in the event that devices were lost or stolen,” according to a press release.

AirWatch also gives Intermountain the ability to restrict device access based on operating system, platform and other factors to protect patient information. As such, the applications give IT administrators active management capabilities that restrict employee access to applications, content and other information based on user permissions, job role and location, according to CHIME.

The partnership also enabled a new mobile strategy at Intermountain in which lightweight iPads were deployed in four helicopters and three fixed-wing planes to serve as mobile intensive care units.

“By using a centralized mobile management solution, Intermountain has gained cost savings and efficiencies in day-to-day operations,” according to a release. “Employee efficiency has increased because they are able to use personal devices to access critical email, contacts and calendars, facilitating access to hospital communications.”