FORT SAM HOUSTON, Texas -- The U.S. Army Medical Information Technology Center held a ribbon-cutting ceremony March 25 officially opening the Enterprise Service Desk support center in the newly renovated Building 2272 on post.
USAMITC, a subordinate command of the U.S. Army Medical Command, provides information management and information technology products and services to medical professionals throughout the Army Medical Department, the Military Health System, Department of Defense and other government clients.
Lt. Col. Beverly Beavers, commander, USAMITC, addressed the crowd, "I am so very proud of all the leaders and team members located throughout every division of USAMITC who have contributed to the vision, planning and ultimately the delivery of the Enterprise Service Desk to all of our MEDCOM customers."
"The success of the ESD is based on our teamwork," she said.
The pilot program for the ESD began at Carl R. Darnall Army Medical Center at Fort Hood, Texas, in 2005 because of their growing population base, increase in wounded warrior patient load and a large managed-care patient load, Beavers explained.
Beavers compared the ESD rollout to an Iditarod race, saying, "It seemed like a very long race going on five full years, but as we head down this last leg of the journey we are looking strong. We have outstanding team members in the fight, we are going to finish and we are going to finish Army Strong."
ESD is a team of 124 technicians who provide IT support to their customers to enhance health care delivery and improve the health of service members and their Families. Technicians assist users with a broad range of issues, including desktop support, connectively and configuration problems.
The ESD currently services more than 40 military health care facilities and currently supports 52,000 end users around the world. By the end of fiscal year 2010, the number of end users will increase to 71,000.
Herbert Coley, chief of staff to the U.S. Army Medical Command, Office of the Surgeon General was guest speaker for the ceremony.
Coley reflected on how far information technology has come saying, "I thought that I was using a high-tech piece of equipment when I had an IBM Selectric typewriter. I thought I was really high-tech because I had a correction tape on mine."
"Those of you who work in the ESD do a marvelous job keeping us up-and-running," Coley said.
"We measure our down-time at less than one percent. That's just absolutely incredible," he said. "Of the 70,000 users that we currently have today, 50,000 of them are serviced by our Enterprise Service Desk [here]."
Coley thanked the ESD team, saying, "I cannot emphasize enough the important role you play in keeping us connected to support Soldiers and their Families."
Medical personnel can access the help desk 24/7, 365 days a year. Customers have four options for submitting requests, via telephone, e-mail, online chat or the Remedy Action Request System through the ESD Web site.
Customers must use a Common Access Card to log onto the Web site.
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