Gateway to Health

Even if the mission of the Jefferson County Department of Health (JCDH) was merely to run seven medical clinics throughout its 1,141 square miles of jurisdiction, the task would be imposing.



But the 652-employee agency does that and much more, including inspecting the region's nearly 3,800 eating facilities -- everything from chic eateries to Little League snack shacks -- several times each year.

The department also inspects public swimming pools, air pollution emitters and even x-ray machines multiple times annually while managing dozens of much-needed home health-care workers, maintaining county health records, and offering community immunizations, disease control programs and public health awareness campaigns.

JCDH provides nearly 25 percent of all immunizations in Alabama -- perhaps not surprising given that Jefferson County is the state's largest county. Jefferson County serves 675,000 citizens, including residents of the city of Birmingham and 35 other municipalities.

JCDH employees fulfill their vitally important and dauntingly multifaceted public health mission amazingly well with the help of hundreds of Gateway desktop PCs, dozens of Gateway servers, and one particularly useful 42-inch Gateway Plasma Display.

Despite JCDH employees' hard work and their importance in the community, the group is humble and philosophical about the impressive department.

"We're just a large health department like you might find in any big city or county," said David Erikson, management information systems director for JCDH. "We have a lot of things to do in the community, and we work hard to see they get done."

Preparing With Plasma
Because the community depends so heavily on JCDH, officials are extremely cognizant of the importance of keeping personnel well trained. The motivation to offer the best and latest in staff preparedness and education prompted the department two years ago to purchase a stylish and functional 42-inch Gateway Plasma Display.

Mounted on the wall of one of the JCDH's training facilities, the clear and bright Gateway Plasma Display provides a startling contrast to the group's old projector screen that had to be lugged into the room and set up on a table.

"We were looking for a plasma display that could be mounted on our training room wall," explained Erikson. "We found Gateway offered the best plasma display at the best price."

The wide flat screen of the Gateway Plasma Display offers the perfect way for department officials to provide large and small groups of staff with all-important training on everything from biological terrorism and weapons of mass destruction threats to environmental health issues and inspection standards.

Further, the Gateway Plasma Display's advanced digital image processing as well as picture-in-picture and picture-on-picture capabilities offer a range of options for producing compelling and informative presentations.

JCDH's Gateway Plasma Display connects to a satellite television system that allows the department to easily receive broadcasts issued by the state health office. Yet the monitor's multi-use capabilities also effortlessly exhibit PowerPoint presentations and Web-based training programs.

Sleek Solution
The use of Gateway's cutting-edge Plasma Display for training purposes is not surprising given officials' understanding of the important role technology plays in furthering the department's mission.

In fact, utilizing technology to its fullest advantage four years ago prompted Erikson's 19-member IT staff to implement an electronic records management system at each of the organization's seven health clinics. Creating a virtually paperless environment required installation of desktop computers for every examination room, doctor's office, clerk's desk and cashier's station. And space was at a premium in the busy clinics.

Enter sleek, space-saving Gateway Profile all-in-one computers.

"Because of space issues in examination rooms and doctors' offices, we were really looking for a smaller, more compact unit, and Profiles really fit the bill," said Erikson. "They're a small footprint, flat screen, quiet, very space saving,