Both Midwest Surgical and United Clinic are using Ruckus Smart Wi-Fi as the primary means of connectivity for doctors, administrators, clinicians, visitors and guests because of the system's unique ability to ensure reliable RF connections and consistent performance. The Ruckus ZoneFlex Smart WLAN systems are being used to support a range of healthcare applications including electronic medical records (EMR), practice management and voice over Wi-Fi.

Within the healthcare market, speeding response time to patients, decreasing disruption to operations, increasing staff productivity and creating a more flexible environment have become the keys to providing superior health care.

Due to the dynamic nature of healthcare environments where doctors and administrators are constantly on the move and patients come and go, Wi-Fi is now viewed as an essential element to improving the treatment of patients and increasing the efficiency of hospital operations. But problems with spotty coverage, erratic signal stability and inconsistent performance are forcing healthcare companies to look for new approaches and technologies that deliver more reliable Wi-Fi services.

"This is the first time we've really felt confident in using Wi-Fi as the primary method of connectivity for everyone in the hospital," said Spencer Williamson, network administrator at Midwest Surgical Hospital. "Hospitals and clinics can't be disrupted and tend to be noisy from an RF perspective. We really needed more advanced Wi-Fi that could deliver consistent and reliable services while eliminating a lot of the manual intervention and tuning that traditional systems require. Smart Wi-Fi has truly advanced the state of Wi-Fi to now make this possible."

Like many hospitals, IT staff is limited at Midwest but still responsible for supporting a broad range of devices and network services ranging from voice over IP systems to servers, network switches to handheld PC tablets. "We just can't be RF experts or be expected to troubleshoot arcane Wi-Fi problems. Wi-Fi has now become THE primary way our staff connects to hospital applications so any problems we experience become big fire drills very quickly," remarked Williamson.

Healthy Wi-Fi Lets Medical Staff Focus on Giving Patients Better Care

Located in Omaha, Nebraska, Midwest is a physician-owned specialty hospital. Midwest is using the Ruckus Smart WLAN ( http://www.ruckuswireless.com/products/zoneflex/ ) system throughout its new hospital and clinic facilities to provide 30 physicians and 50 staff with secure mobile access to its EMR and Advantix billing and scheduling applications. Midwest's facilities include six operating rooms, 19 overnight staybeds, offices, a pharmacy and clinic.

Midwest runs multiple WLANs over the same Ruckus ZoneFlex infrastructure. Doctors, staff and administrators securely access an encrypted WLAN that is mapped to a discrete virtual LAN (VLAN) only after they, as well as the devices they are using, have been successfully authenticated. Meanwhile the Ruckus ZoneFlex Smart WLAN is used to provide Internet access to guests, patients and visitors.

Going forward, a separate SSID will be dedicated to VoIP communications. Up to eight SSIDs can be configured in minutes within the Ruckus ZoneFlex system. Unique security and user parameters for each SSID, such as the ability to set bandwidth limits for users, can be easily configured.

Midwest's EMR applications are accessed over the Smart Wi-Fi network with 20 HP tablet computers as well as Centrino-based laptop computers. With the Ruckus Smart WLAN system, the EMR application can be accessed securely and reliably, letting doctors and administrators write patient orders and prescriptions, check patient history, make appointments and perform other essential patient services anywhere within Midwest facilities.

"The Ruckus ZoneFlex system virtually came with an RF engineer inside," said Williamson. "Because it integrates a smart antenna system to give us better range and reliability, and is able to locally adapt to environmental problems in real time, we didn't have to worry about where to place the access points and didn't need as many APs to cover a given area." Williamson noted that a single Ruckus ZoneFlex AP provides the range of three conventional APs -- at half the cost.

Voice and Data Unite with Wireless

Formerly a Cisco shop, United Clinic in Aberdeen, South Dakota, has switched to the Ruckus ZoneFlex system for its medical campus to ensure high reliability and ubiquitous coverage, supporting voice and data applications. Each application is supported via a unique SSID that is mapped to a discrete VLAN.

Because security and HIPAA compliance are essential, as each device attempts to associate to the wireless network, the Ruckus ZoneDirector queries a Microsoft IAS system to authenticate both the user and the device before allowing wireless access.

United uses PEAP-based authentication with advanced WPA (AES) encryption for data applications. For voice over Wi-Fi, Spectralink i640 phones extend a MITEL 3300 VoIP-based PBX and are programmed with pre-shared encryption keys to ensure high security. HP tablet PCs are used by doctors and administrators to access EMR and practice management applications.

"These EMR applications are very sensitive to network outages or delays of any kind down to the millisecond and throw up a disconnect error if anything bad is experienced," said Eric Hanson, president of TelServ, a networking solutions provider that worked with United Clinic on its new Smart WLAN system. "For Wi-Fi to be United's primary means of connectivity, the WLAN needed to reduce, almost eliminate, any kind of packet loss -- even in the face of interference. The Ruckus ZoneFlex system delivered this level of reliability."

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Keywords: ruckus wireless, smart wi fi, erratic signal, healthcare environments, electronic medical records, staff productivity, signal stability, spotty coverage, inconsistent performance, smart wireless, hospital operations, flexible environment, Wireless IPTV