SevenHills Health City near Mumbai is now India's first paperless hospital, helped by 802.11n Wi-Fi from Ruckus Wireless. The new network will support a wide range of critical-care applications within a three-million square-foot “health city” spanning 17 acres. Ruckus Wireless, which is a smart mobile networking company, has been chosen by SevenHills Hospital, and will be standardising on the Ruckus ZoneFlex 802.11n Smart wireless LAN (WLAN) system across the complex.
With the Ruckus ZoneFlex system in place, SevenHills Health City will be able to automate routine data collection to reduce errors and dependency on paperwork as well as instantly capture real-time patient data, test results, medical records and other life-critical information to accelerate patient evaluation and improve diagnostic accuracy.
SevenHills is deploying 350 ZoneFlex 7962 dual-band smart Wi-Fi access points (APs) and multiple ZoneDirector controllers across its “health city.” The three million square feet support a 1,500-bed facility, 300 residential complexes, and large medical facilities that include 36 modular operation theatres, pharmacies, 120 outpatient consulting chambers, waiting areas and two auditoriums.
SevenHills will also use the new Ruckus Smart Wi-Fi system with wireless handheld devices and patient wrist bands, employing radio frequency identification (RFID) and making it possible to track the location and status of patients throughout a hospital campus. Real-Time Location Systems (RTLSs) are used for accurate asset tracking and location, driving cost savings and workflow productivity gains. Other plans are for the leveraging of the new Wi-Fi system to enable IP-based voice and video communications among healthcare personnel to improve communications.
Suresh Kumar, General Manager of IT at SevenHills Hospital, stresses that SevenHills had a mandate to ensure doctors were well equipped with the proper technology to allow them to spend quality time with each patient, as well as to capture and share real time data with other specialists and staff in the hospital. Additionally, each doctor and staff member needs to be equipped with smart handheld devices that allow them to source patient information from wherever they are in the campus.
“Signal coverage and wireless stability were big obstacles in achieving this mandate,” said Kumar. “We looked at a variety of technology in the market but found that only the Ruckus system was purposely designed to address physical layer issues and allow wireless networks to behave more like a wire.
“Wireless is now considered a strategic imperative within healthcare to lower costs, increase operational efficiency, expedite patient care and gain timely access to life-critical information,” he continued. “The problem is that hospitals create one of the worst environments for Wi-Fi given all the various devices, obstructions, delay-sensitive applications and RF interference found here. Traditional Wi-Fi technology just wouldn’t cut it. This is what led us to more advanced implementations.”
* Smart Wi-Fi is a new generation of standard-based 802.11 technology that leverages intelligent antenna arrays and dynamic beam-forming technologies to automatically form and direct wireless transmissions over the best performing signal paths and away from interference. This results in a two- to four-fold increase in coverage along with more consistent wireless performance at greater distances.
** Headquartered in Silicon Valley, Ruckus Wireless is supplies advanced wireless systems for the mobile Internetworking market. It markets and manufactures a wide range of indoor and outdoor Smart Wi-Fi products for mobile operators, broadband service providers and corporate enterprises around the world. Since 2006, revenue and shipments (including 2 million Smart Wi-Fi systems) have grown by over 1,000%. Ruckus has invented and patented wireless technology that steers signals around obstacles and interference. The company is led by Selina Lo, President and CEO.
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