Telephone Warehouse teamed up with Samsung and Xeta Technologies to assist Palo Verde Hospital in Blythe, CA with the replacement of their outdated and overloaded telephone system.

Samsung Business Communications Systems embarked on a vertical marketing campaign targeted at the healthcare industry and received a response from Palo Verde Hospital.The hospital IT department was already in the process of accepting bids to replace their aging Nortel Option 11 PBX. The hospital had outgrown this system, and many hospital employees were using standalone telephone lines from the local telephone company instead of hospital extensions. Thus, they could not transfer calls, make intercom calls, and were very limited in their capabilities. Plus, the cost of these additional analog lines was very high.

Samsung did not have a dealer in the area of Blythe, California,so they contacted their strategic partner, Xeta Technologies, for assistance inmaking the sale. Xeta is a national telecommunications service provider, and responded by contacting Telephone Warehouse as the closest and most capable dealer. A joint sales visit was made to the site by Samsung Regional Sales Manager Darren Roberts, and Telephone Warehouse President Rick Waldrip.

The initial meeting went very well, and the Palo Verde Hospital IT staff was impressed by the Samsung system, the pricing, and the support they anticipated they would receive. A follow up visit was planned witha demonstration of the Samsung system. Subsequently, a Palo Verde Hospital Board of Directors meeting was planned and the decision was made to award the contract to Samsung, Xeta, and Telephone Warehouse.

The project was not a simple one. There were over 200 extensions in total to be installed.  The hospital consists of multiple buildings, one of which was separated by a city street. Plus it is a true hospital and has all of the high-profile and critical components as such: emergency room, clean rooms, operating rooms, intensive care, and of course, patient rooms. The project also included the installation of a second PRI T1 from the local exchange carrier, Frontier Communications, as well as the conversion of dozens of analog lines into DID numbers to put users back onto the hospital PBX. Thus the project called for intensive planning and preparation.

Several visits were made to the hospital to gather information and plan the installation. The cable plant was old and undocumented.The phone company information did not exist and needed to be compiled. After countless hours of preparation and design, the system was ready to be installed.

Telephone Warehouse Technical Manager Kirk Otteman wasassigned as the project manager and lead technician on the project. Kirk spent several weeks at the site assisting in the preparation and planning for this installation, as well as performing the cutover and support after the installation.

Telephone Warehouse technical personnel prepped the system in their office and brought it out to the site. A rack was installed to house the two-cabinet Samsung OfficeServ 7400 system. The hospital's existing cable plant was adapted to a patch panel system to simplify the cutover process and make maintenance easier.

Two days of phone user training classes were conducted for hospital staff. The classes went well and the hospital staff were excited by the capabilities of their new phone system and eager to get it installed.

The cutover was scheduled for 12AM on September 23rd, 2010.Telephone Warehouse had a staff of five on site to perform the cutover in allof the hospital areas, and were assisted by James Mayes and David Johnson withthe Palo Verde Hospital IT Department.

The cut went very smoothly. There were no problems and therewas no noticeable interruption of service to the hospital staff.  Telephone Warehouse personnel were also onsite for the next two days to assist, address any problems that arose, and answer questions for users.

Telephone Warehouse followed up two weeks after the installation with administration training for the hospital IT staff, and is providing technical support, remote administration, and site services when needed.

The hospital staff is very happy with their new Samsung OfficeServ 7400 system and enjoying the many features they did not have previously. They arealso enjoying the support provided by Telephone Warehouse.

This was a very successful project and a big win for PaloVerde Hospital, Samsung, Xeta, and for Telephone Warehouse.