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Building the Ideal Network
November 1, 2007
When the Children's National Medical Center in Washington decided to build a 140-bed addition, it had the opportunity to install what it saw as the ideal I.T. infrastructure-a converged wireless network. The wireless network in the addition, scheduled to open in mid-November, will support numerous mobile applications, says Michael Lavorel, director of technology services at the 283-bed hospital.
Children's National plans to eventually convert the entire campus to a converged wireless infrastructure. The network in the new building will:
* Provide access to electronic health records and computerized physician order entry systems from Cerner Corp., Kansas City, Mo., via computers mounted on carts, the same access now available in other sections of the hospital;
* Enable nurses and physicians to use VoIP phones for voice and data communication;
* Link to bedside patient monitors;
* Facilitate video conferencing; and
* Support a patient entertainment system
A converged wireless network was the most up-to-date option to use for an advanced new facility, Lavorel says. "There is more and more convergence of video, medical and biomedical applications using the network," he says. "The demands on speed and bandwidth are increasing, and we have to go to the next generation so we have the necessary capacity."
Anticipated network volume growth led the hospital to upgrade to a 10-gigabit core switch from 1 gigabit, Lavorel says. The medical center tapped New York-based systems integrator Dimension Data for the project. The company has deployed networking technology from Cisco Systems Inc., San Jose, Calif.
The VoIP system was provided by Ascom Ltd., Switzerland. As hospitals upgrade and purchase new networks, the focus is on mobility, says Bob Hafner, managing vice president at Gartner Inc., Stamford, Conn. Clinicians need to be able to access and enter information into handheld devices or computers mounted on mobile carts, he contends.
Another growing trend is to use VoIP devices for more than voice communication. "Some are setting up systems so nurse calls from patients go directly to the device," he says. Others are using VoIP to transmit text and other data too, he adds. When the new wing at
Children's National opens, nurses will use VoIP phones from that will be linked to a nurse call system. If a patient needs something, the nurse can be notified immediately, no matter where they are in the large new facility, Lavorel says. Next year, Children's National also will link patient monitoring devices, such as electrocardiograms, to the wireless network.
If patients' vital signs fall outside a predetermined range, the system will automatically notify a clinician via the VoIP phones. Other VoIP applications under consideration include resetting passwords clinicians use to access the network. When a clinician needs to change a password, or they forget it, they would dial a number, enter their employee identification number and then choose a new password.
"The automation possibilities are endless with this," Lavorel says. The new network's videoconferencing capabilities will come in handy, Lavorel says, because some of the hospital's administrative offices have moved to other locations to make room for additional patient rooms and clinical staff. The network also will support a patient entertainment system from GetWellNetwork, Bethesda, Md., Lavorel says.
Each room will be equipped with a touch screen computer that the patient can use to order food, find out information about their appointments, watch television and surf the Web. The new network will be managed from a central location, which makes it easier to administer the access points and identify any problems rather than manually searching if a problem arises, Lavorel says. To provide network redundancy in the new wing, each patient room has a backup in place in case the network goes down, he adds.
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