669,267 emails per month and other jaw-dropping numbers

Tate Belden works on system maintenance Wednesday from his desk in Information Services. He is one of 31 IS employees who keep WMC running smoothly — technologically speaking.

As one of the hospital’s directors, I’ve had the privilege to “round” in many different departments here at Wyoming Medical Center. To “round” means to visit our departments, checking in on employee morale, safety and quality issues.

One department in particular has blown my mind and taught me things I did not know about the hospital in which I’ve worked at for over a year– Information Services.

Imagine making sure that 0 viruses infect any of the 1,990 personal computers and supported devices used at WMC. Or ensuring that our Electronic Medical Records program, wireless patient equipment and 117 applications are in working order.

Each month, the hospital receives more than 669,267 incoming emails. Of those, Information Services blocks 93,152 and quarantines 107,467, taking up more than 61 billion bytes of space on our servers.  This high-level of protection ensures our patient’s medical records and emails are kept strictly confidential and are received by the right person.

Information Services rids our systems of unwanted hackers while responding to more 6,356 help desk tickets a year. Can you imagine having to deal with this magnitude of technology on a daily basis? Gives me a headache just thinking about it.

Information Services adds to the hospital’s standard of providing the safest and highest quality of care to our patients and staff. Thank you for keeping our trusty little PCs healthy and ensuring the highest virus protection and confidentiality. And thank you for answering my questions when I call the help desk. Questions like: “So, how do I turn on my computer again?”