NHS Mid Essex Prescribes Wireless Network For New Hospital Wing
Selects Aerohive to Support Acute Healthcare Services and Infection Control
Santa Clara, Calif. (PRWEB) April 27, 2010
Aerohive Networks (http://www. aerohive. com), creators of the award-winning cooperative control wireless LAN (WLAN) architecture, announced today that Broomfield Hospital, part of Mid Essex Hospital Services NHS Trust, will significantly extend its existing Aerohive Networks’ WLAN infrastructure by adding a further 300 access points to cover a new five-storey wing which will house 365 beds, five operating theatres, A&E department, maternity unit, pharmacy, and rooftop helipad. The extension of the wireless network will support acute healthcare services and, by enabling applications such as RFID tagging of equipment like mattresses and trolleys, help to improve infection control. The new wing is funded by Private Finance Initiative (PFI) and is due for completion in August 2010.
Aerohive's cooperative control HiveAPs require no network controllers or overlay networks. Instead, software in the HiveAPs enables them to self-organize into groups called Hives. The result is a secure multi-service WLAN infrastructure able to support a vast array of wireless devices, application types and service levels, with faster client performance, wire-like resilience and lower capital and operational costs.
Mike Casey, Director of IT for Mid Essex Hospital Services NHS Trust, is leading the IT strategy for the new wing; “Having already deployed an Aerohive WLAN at Broomfield Hospital, we were confident of its capability to scale and support the innovative applications we are investing in as part of the hospital’s expansion. Alongside traditional healthcare products such as Medical Tablet PC’s and computers-on-wheels, we want to use RFID to track beds and valuable equipment, effectively we want to make the hospital ‘self aware’. In the future we would expect to be able to track where every bed and every mattress has been at any given time. The faster we can provide this information to the Infection Control Teams, the quicker they are able to combat sources of infection and contain them.”
“In addition, we will be investing in mobile devices that allow us to utilize the 3G and wireless network, helping to reduce call costs; and, in the future, hope to provide a modern platform for new Wi-Fi enabled devices, like the Apple iPad, to healthcare consultants. To achieve this, it’s important that the wireless architecture is future-proof and robust.”
Implemented and supported by Swiftpath Business Solutions and Networks First, the existing wireless network, consisting of 75 access points (HiveAPs) will be scaled by a further 300, and be fully operational when the new wing opens in October 2010; a single HiveManager platform will enable Broomfield Hospital to manage the network from a central location, and support up to 5000 HiveAPs.
Mike Casey adds, “We expect to realize a return-on-investment, from the extended WLAN, within 12 months. The intuitive nature of the HiveAPs and central management platform combined will also help to reduce ongoing maintenance costs. Aerohive’s architecture is designed to overcome the key challenges that we face both now and for the future; it has certainly raised the industry benchmark for wireless networks.”
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