Written By Lasondria Hill

Participants in PMI Atlanta’s March Healthcare Forum were captivated by an informative and thought-provoking presentation by Andrew Gurbaxani, Vice President of Analytics and Networking at Benevis, an Atlanta-based dental services organization that supports the Kool Smiles brand, with 125 offices in 15 states plus Washington, D.C. Andrew, who holds both PMP certification and PMI-ACP credentials, is responsible for the telecom and digital infrastructure that supports more than two million patient visits per year and leads Benevis’s Data Warehouse and Business Intelligence function.

The presentation highlighted technology initiatives at Benevis that focused on implementing new IT infrastructure to reduce costs and decrease down time across the multiple Kool Smiles offices by addressing old infrastructure (Telecom Deserts), rising construction costs and down time, as well as areas that were difficult to maintain/service.

By implementing the use of 100% SIP telephony (a state-of-the-art telecom network with an average cost of less than $0.01/min), SD-WAN infrastructure (Talari) and a thin client infrastructure (Citrix, Wyse terminals), Andrew and his team were able to tremendously improve the IT infrastructure of Benevis. Accordingly, SD-Wan (Talari) has helped Benevis meet their target of 99.9% site availability.

By deploying small pilot projects at different phases at select Kool Smile sites, Benevis has increased availability/site uptime, decreased net circuit cost and increased performance/bandwidth. As a result, Kool Smiles is able to treat patients on a more efficient and cost-effective scale, and Benevis, along with Andrew and his team, has literally changed the face of dentistry!

Andrew concluded his presentation with a question and answer session, and emcee Gray Terry thanked Andrew, Health Forum participants and Philips, the host of this month’s forum.

TeleWho, TeleWhat, TeleWhere? Please join the Healthcare Forum for our next event on Wednesday, April 20 as Sherrie Williams, Executive Director for Georgia Partnership for Telehealth presents: “Bridging the Healthcare Gap: How Telemedicine is Transforming the Healthcare Environment.”

Location:
Philips Healthcare
One Deerfield Forum
13560 Morris Road
Alpharetta, GA 30004