Healthcare

Extending medical information networks right to the point of care, the patient’s bedside.

The digitization of medicine, including standardized electronic medical records and Computerized Physician Order Entry (CPOE) systems, offers seamless access to medical information. Extricom’s WLAN solution extends this capability by allowing doctors and nurses to quickly and reliably access this information right to the point of care - at the patient’s bedside.

Wireless Medical Applications

The ways in which WLANs can be used in healthcare are almost unlimited:

Patient-centric applications - including patient registration, treatment verification, prescription automation, and patient tracking
Instant staff communications - using both voice and data
Asset and Facilities Management applications - including materials management
(bar code) and inventory tracking and location.
Public Wi-Fi services - provide patients and visitors with public broadband service, improving both image and revenues.

Healthcare WLANs Unique Challenges

Healthcare facilities are probably the most demanding environments for WLANs:

Intensive and Time-sensitive Activities - Medical personnel perform information-intensive and time-sensitive activities within a campus-wide, highly mobile operation.
Physical Layout Challenges - A typical medical building’s T-, U-, or H-shaped layout, with multiple enclosed rooms and long hallways, presents a physical hurdle that can be terminal for WLANs.
Stringent Regulatory Requirements - The regulated nature of healthcare also imposes stringent requirements for privacy of electronic information, as illustrated by the U.S. Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and the European Union Privacy directives.
Public and Private Networks - Guest broadband service on the same network challenges the balance between mission-critical and public convenience.

CORE REQUIREMENTS

Mission-Critical Communications: The work of medical staff is time-sensitive. And the ability to have access to information at all times, everywhere, is not negotiable when patient care and safety is at stake.

Information-Intensive Applications: Consider: radiology files that reach 30 to 90 MB in size; emergency rooms with high user density; voice communications that must co-exist with equally critical data transmissions.

Multi-Tenant and Multi-Application Support: Many uses of Wi-Fi; one infrastructure. This is the goal. Maximum Return on Investment (ROI) is achieved if a single WLAN system can allow for co-existence of many different users (staff and visitors), a wide variety of devices, and the full range of voice, data, and video applications.

Mobility and Wireless VoIP: What good is wireless voice communication, if users are frustrated by an inability to move?

Regulatory Compliance: EU privacy laws, HIPAA, and other regulations mandate stringent security when transmitting patient data.

THE EXTRICOM EXPERIENCE

Guaranteed Service: Extricom's technology is the only WLAN technology that can deliver a guaranteed and consistent level of connectivity speed, to all users, everywhere on the campus.

Very Highcapacity WLAN: The Extricom solution reliably delivers very high bandwidth where other systems can fail. With its excellent noise immunity, higher AP density, and the ability to create a ‘fast-lane’ for 802.11n users in both the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands, the Extricom solution can achieve up to 7x higher throughput than other architectures.

Multi-Layer System with No Performance Trade-offs: Extricom's unique channel blanket topology permits the physical segregation of different users, devices, and applications, providing maximum performance to all without trade-offs - as if they each had a dedicated system of their own.

Zero-Latency, Seamless Mobility: No handoff delays. No dropped calls. Superior voice quality and battery life. This is the Extricom WLAN built for voice over Wi-Fi.

Security Compliance in a Mobile World: Extricom provides maximum wireless security, while retaining full choice of client device and mobility. You can easily meet EU and HIPAA requirements, without impacting your high-performance solution.