Challenge: Manual patching in a high-stakes environment
Healthcare IT leaves little room for error.
“We have a ton of governmental regulations we have to comply with that other organizations don’t,” Frost explained. “We deal with HIPAA, patient information, and patients’ rights to that information.”
In addition to HIPAA, Blanchard Valley Health System must meet Joint Commission standards and comply with CMS requirements. Falling behind does not just increase audit risk. It can directly impact accreditation and reimbursement.
“And beyond that,” Frost said, “you’re dealing with people’s lives.”
Despite those stakes, patching was slow and exhausting. Blanchard Valley Health System relied on Microsoft SCCM for patching, alongside other legacy tools. While functional, the setup required significant manual effort and still left the team struggling to keep systems consistently up to date. Server updates were handled manually, often requiring two team members to work through Saturday nights and Sunday mornings.
“We were anywhere from sixty to ninety days behind on patching,” Frost shared. “And it was all manual and we couldn’t scale.”
More man-hours ultimately couldn’t make up for the lack of trust in the tools. “Trust is essential,” Frost explained. “The tools we had just didn’t give us the accuracy or consistency required in healthcare.”
Limited visibility and an unsustainable pace
Without a reliable agent-based system, the team lacked a clear inventory of devices across clinics and practices and whether they were compliant. That made large-scale initiatives, like OS upgrades, painfully slow.
Technicians were manually upgrading machines to Windows 11, but progress was limited.
“Our technicians would be lucky if they could get six upgrades done in a day, given their other responsibilities,” Frost said. For an environment with 3,000 workstations, at that pace, upgrading would take more than a year.
Solution: From reactive patching to policy-driven automation
Blanchard Valley Health System chose NinjaOne to bring endpoint management, patching, and automation into a unified platform, and the positive impact was immediate.
Nearly all 250+ servers were onboarded in less than a week. The biggest improvement came from automated patch management and OS deployment.
By shifting from manual execution to policy-driven automation, the team eliminated dependency on weekend patch windows and reduced human error. NinjaOne’s autonomous patch workflows ensured updates were deployed consistently and safely, without disrupting clinical operations.
“With NinjaOne, you’re patching within a short time frame from when patches are released,” Frost explained. “We’re no longer months behind.”
The difference was dramatic. “What would have taken us a year, NinjaOne helped us accomplish in just a couple of months, with about 2,200 workstations upgraded,” Frost said. “My director and CDIO are pretty much floored by how much we’ve been able to roll out and how quickly.”
Results & Outcomes
A single source of truth
Beyond speed, NinjaOne gave the team something they had been missing – confidence in the reliability of their IT environment.
With the NinjaOne agent installed across the environment, Frost’s team now has a real-time, accurate inventory of every endpoint. That visibility is critical for compliance and day-to-day decision-making.
“For a regulated environment, having a single source of truth matters,” Frost explained. “We know what we have, where it is, and whether it’s compliant thanks to NinjaOne.”
Clear ROI across a complex environment
NinjaOne has transformed how Blanchard Valley Health System manages IT at scale.
Patch cycles that once lagged by months are now completed within weeks of release. Manual weekend work has been eliminated, reducing burnout and freeing the team to focus on strategic resilience initiatives instead of reactive maintenance. Automated OS upgrades allow thousands of devices to be updated without disrupting patient care.
That consistency has also strengthened compliance readiness. With clear visibility into patch status and device health, the team feels more confident meeting HIPAA requirements and supporting Joint Commission, and CMS audits.
At the same time, consolidating tools delivered real financial impact. By eliminating TeamViewer and other overlapping solutions, Blanchard Valley Health System is saving approximately $49,000 annually, without a drop in productivity and with even greater savings expected as the team continues to fully retire SCCM.
Reliability that matters
NinjaOne gives Blanchard Valley Health System a scalable foundation for the future. By replacing manual effort with automation and eliminating tool sprawl by consolidating solutions, the team can support growth without adding complexity or risk.
“In healthcare, you can’t afford surprises,” Frost said. “NinjaOne gives us the control, visibility, and reliability we need to protect our patients and keep systems running smoothly.”