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More and more healthcare professionals around the world are taking advantage of the speed, mobility, and flexibility of wireless LAN solutions to increase the quality of patient care and reduce costs. In Pinehurst, North Carolina, Moore Regional Hospital has proven that the most recent generation of wireless 802.11 LAN technology is not just a lot of hype, and that its promises of performance, reliability, and cost benefits are finally being met. Using Technology to Solve Problems

Moore Regional Hospital has never been afraid to utilize leading-edge information system technology to enhance its patient care services. "We've been using a 2MB wireless LAN solution for about ??? years in our ??? (area of the hospital) to run one application that manages patient care information”, says Rich Vadala, the Director of Technology Management. "Although we've derived benefits from utilizing the 2MB wireless LAN technology, it just doesn't have the bandwidth we need to expand its applications throughout our campus." The hospital campus is made up of many buildings spread out over a couple of square miles, beautifully situated amongst hundreds of pine trees. Rich continues, “We have a T1 connection for Internet

access to our hospital, but the monthly overhead of leased-line charges had made it cost-prohibitive for us to connect additional buildings to the Internet.” In early 2000, construction began on a new wing of the hospital, called the Nursing Pavilion. Consisting of four floors, a lobby level, and a basement, the new wing serves as a nursing pavilion, Emergency Department, and Cancer Center. As construction began on the new Nursing Pavilion, Cisco Systems and VAR partner Tech Center introduced Rich and his staff to the latest in wireless LAN solutions. Cisco has long been a leader in networking hardware and software solutions, and its line of Cisco Aironet wireless LAN products sets the standard for performance, reliability, and value.

The Evaluation and the Conclusion

Tech Center has a strong reputation as a Cisco VAR and has been one of the pioneers in providing complete wireless LAN solutions. With a staff of network specialists and software programmers, Tech Center can provide a turnkey solution for its customers. At the outset, Tech Center provided Rich and his staff with some hardware for evaluation purposes. Within just a few short weeks, all questions

and doubts about the performance of the 11MB wireless LAN technology had been resolved. Rich recalls, “We were very impressed with the bandwidth of the Cisco Aironet 340 series product. Our patient care application ran very well, and we were also able to serve other applications such as MS Office without performance degradation. We concluded very quickly that this was the direction we needed to go.”

Why a wireless LAN, and why Cisco Aironet?

Rich explains why they committed to a Cisco Aironet wireless LAN as their solution of choice: “We needed a cost-effective way to share our T1 Internet connection across multiple buildings on our campus, and we needed a high-performance network to run multiple applications on our hospital LAN. The Cisco Aironet

solution tested very well in our environment, and so far we haven’t been disappointed. The 802.11 standard and the overall reliability were also very important factors in our decision to use the Cisco Aironet solution.”

The Site Survey and Installation

Tech Center was contracted to perform the necessary Site Survey to determine the specifications for the campus-wide wireless LAN deployment. The survey took approximately two weeks, and the results of the Site Survey became the blueprint for the project. The installation of the wireless LAN began during the tail end of the construction phase of the new wing. From start to finish, the entire installation of the wireless LAN was completed in just two weeks. The first week was spent connecting the hospital’s T1 line with several other buildings on the campus. This was accomplished using Cisco Aironet wireless bridge technology. A parabolic antenna, which was connected to the hospital network with access to the

T1 line, was installed on the roof of the hospital. This antenna was setup to have line-of-site to 1) the Hospice building, where another parabolic antennae was installed, and 2) to the Ambulatory Surgery Center, where a yagi antenna was utilized. Other buildings were then connected from these two points using various antenna solutions. The results after only one week: nine buildings are sharing one single T1 connection without having to dig a single hole in the ground. (One caveat…a pine tree had to be cut down to allow for line-of-site to the Ambulatory Surgery Center.) The drawing below illustrates the building-to-building connectivity.

The second week of installation focused on the new Nursing Pavilion. A total of 59 Access Points (AP) with patch antennas were installed throughout the Nursing Pavilion, and each AP was certified to meet the requirements specified in the Site Survey. The

Nursing Pavilion now has wall-to-wall LAN coverage from the basement to the fourth floor, including all patient rooms, the Emergency Department, and the Cancer Center.

The New Nursing Pavilion – Wall to Wall LAN Coverage in One Week

Level

Functions No. of APs with Patch Antennas

Approximate Square Feet

Basement Lobby Level Floor #1 Floor #2 Floor #3 Floor #4

Rich comments on the installation process, “Things went very smoothly. Tech Center obviously knows their business, and they worked well with our staff. We have already begun our plans for Phase two which will give us wireless network connectivity throughout the entire hospital.”

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Cost Savings and Improved Services

The benefits of the wireless LAN at Moore Regional Hospital have been numerous. First, a very real and

measurable cost savings has been realized by avoiding additional monthly overhead from more T1 lines. The additional bandwidth means that multiple applications can be served (such as MS Office), eliminating the need to install and support a wired LAN. And because

the new wireless LAN is so reliable, support costs are

reduced. Rich predicts his payback, “We have calculated that our payback for our new wireless LAN will be 1-1/2 to 2 years.” But even more importantly than the cost savings benefits is the overall improvement of the patient care services that can be provided. Patient care is demanding and nurses need a reliable and practical platform for the clinical setting. Laptop computers equipped with the Cisco Aironet PC adapters are mounted on carts, giving nurses immediate access to patient medication records, and (???) right at the bedside. By immediately verifying that medication is being administered to the correct patient and in the correct dosage, potential errors and documentation inefficiencies are eliminated. This benefit is immeasurable.

Phase Two Planning is Already Underway

The commitment has already been made to extend the wireless LAN to the remainder of the hospital. An additional 199 Access Points have already been purchased, and this will complete the coverage of the entire hospital. (summarize what areas that includes, include square footage and the number of beds). Once

this is complete, additional users of the system will include those on the staff that “roam” the hospital, such as Dietary, Physical Therapy, Pharmacy, and in some cases even the Physicians. When this phase is complete, Moore Regional Hospital will have one of the largest wireless LAN installations in the world.