Case Study: Columbia Memorial Hospital achieves 99.999% continuous EHR availability with Stratus Technologies

Stratus Delivers CONTINUOUS AVAILABILITY For Multi-Jurisdictional Police, Fire And Emergency Services

Columbia Memorial Hospital needed to roll out an interoperable ambulatory EHR for more than 200 clinicians across 25+ locations while meeting HEAL NY and ARRA funding milestones — but had limited IT staff and required guaranteed 24/7/365 access to patient records and strong data governance. The challenge was to deploy a secure, always-on system that supported web access across multiple jurisdictions and minimized downtime and operational complexity.

The hospital implemented a private-cloud SaaS model using Stratus ftServer fault-tolerant servers, ftScalable storage and VMware virtualization to host the CCHIT‑certified EHR. Four ftServer systems run 20 VMs with 7 TB of storage, delivering targeted 99.999% availability, simplified management, one-stop support, lower hardware needs and cost savings — ensuring continuous clinician access, improved data integrity and compliance with funding timelines.

Columbia Memorial Hospital

Cathy Crowley

Chief Information Officer