Healthcare

Healthcare organizations can improve patient care and staff efficiency by enabling mobile computing and communications. Doctors, nursing staff, and specialists are constantly on the move between patients and locations. Patients are frequently moved for access to critical diagnostic, monitoring, and treatment equipment. Equipment is moved from room to room - even from facility to facility - to gather, deliver, or track continuously changing data. Installing wireless networks for anywhere-access however, has not always been feasible for healthcare environments. It means pulling new fiber or Ethernet cable - often impossible in existing facilities, older buildings, or critical care areas. It's expensive. And deployment would be time-consuming and disruptive.

With Wireless Instant Networks^TM, however, network connectivity can be added virtually anywhere without the complication and expense of installing backhaul wiring. Using standards-based routing and mesh networking technologies,  HotPoint^TM wireless mesh routers extend existing installed networks by providing industry standard Ethernet over a wireless backbone. As a result, the network can be taken wherever the equipment and patients happen to be rather than the other way around - and applications can be deployed for a fraction of the cost associated with traditional network infrastructures.

 Instant Networks Across Healthcare Facilities

A  instant network is an IP, broadband mesh network that supports multi-hop, point-to-point, and multi-cast routing. HotPoint routers automatically find each other to create an extensive mesh backhaul for transporting traffic. Deploying a HotPoint mesh router is as easy as plugging the unit into an AC power source. Now, critical networking services and Wi-Fi access points can be deployed anywhere they're needed.

Deploy Quickly and Cost Effectively

High capital equipment, infrastructure displacement and rebuilding, and ongoing maintenance costs can put wireless networks out of reach for cost-sensitive healthcare facilities. Now however,  HotPoint mesh routers reduce the need to buy costly network switches, pull cable, or lay fiber. They can be deployed wherever there is a standard AC outlet and they provision themselves and configure the wireless mesh upon being plugged in. An instantly provisioning wireless mesh network enables healthcare facilities to:

• Enable campus-wide secure public and private networks for medical and emergency staff, faculty, interns, medical students, administrators, and support staff
• Cost-effectively connect all areas of the hospital to provide Internet access for doctors, nurses, clinicians, technicians, patients and their families
• Connect and mobilize important diagnostic, monitoring, and treatment equipment for use wherever needed
• Create temporary networks for meetings, presentations, educational sessions, short-term staff offices, and even casualty and disaster situations
• Extend areas of support for Wi-Fi based phone calls
• Quickly and easily connect related offices and facilities surrounding the main medical campus, such as diagnostic facilities, research labs, out-patient facilities, pharmacies, the offices of doctors who have hospital privileges on-site, community-based care organizations, and related social services offices
• Enable access in brick, historic, and other buildings where traditional Ethernet or fiber cabling would damage the building's historic integrity or aesthetics

Ramp Up Security and Improve Surveillance Monitoring

With round-the-clock activity, medical complexes have a high volume of transient traffic. Visitors and caregivers alike can be vulnerable to potential criminal activity.  HotPoint mesh routers can cost-effectively enhance security measures by extending surveillance capabilities almost anywhere. Wherever there is an AC power outlet - parking lots and parking garages, labs, walkways between buildings, courtyards, at information kiosks, public transportation waiting areas, and areas surrounding event venues - a HotPoint mesh router can route live images from a security camera.

As a broadband mesh network, a  instant network enables delivery of real-time video, allowing security personnel to monitor sites from any location. With low incremental cost, extra units can be located at common boundaries with local law enforcement's jurisdiction to greatly increase security and monitoring effectiveness.

Mobilize Resources

With HotPoint units, healthcare facilities can establish an instant network for transmitting critical data within the hospital. Battery powered HotPoint mesh routers can be placed on carts with medical devices and moved from location to location maintaining their network connections at all times.

Create Instant Internet Access Points

 HotPoint mesh routers are ideal for extending high-speed wireless access to

• Public areas, such as waiting rooms, cafeterias, lobbies, conference rooms, and patient lounges
• Operating rooms and viewing galleries
• Emergency rooms
• Clinical trial networks
• Temporary networks
• Classrooms and conference networks
• Pharmacy and dispensing personnel
• Patient rooms and wards
• Patient transportation dispatching
• Food preparation staff
• Students, conferences, and symposia
• Related social service agencies
• Nearby physician offices

Ethernet Connections Anywhere

HotPoint mesh routers also provide an Ethernet connection for peripheral devices. For the first time, institutions can install hubs, printers, image scanners, and other devices in hard-to-reach locations to extend access to more users.

A Dynamic Difference

For medical personnel, instant access to important information and updates can make a significant difference in patient outcomes. For patients and their families, wireless access provides a way to remain connected during a difficult time. For healthcare facilities, the ability to easily and cost-effectively deploy ubiquitous wireless network capabilities can be a significant point of differentiation and an attractive feature for prospective medical staff, researchers, and the communities they serve.