Aspen Healthcare recently announced it has completed deployment of the Meru Uninterrupted Care Network (UCN), provided by intelligent Wi-Fi leader Meru Networks. This solution, which also includes the Meru Network Manager, was deployed at one of Aspen's four private acute care hospitals in London and Sheffield. Aspen also owns and operates an outpatient cancer center and ambulatory surgical centers in Edinburgh and Solihull, West Midlands.
Meru was chosen for its high-density device-handling abilities, which fell in line with Aspen's interest in deploying a future-proof robust Wi-Fi infrastructure centered around voice and mobile data. The company's Network Manager enables detailed end-to-end visibility, network-wide monitoring and power control over the Wi-Fi network.
“The Aspen Healthcare portfolio is growing quickly and our goal is to provide patients and visitors with the very best facilities, including the wireless network,” said David Williams, IT director at Aspen Healthcare. “Wi-Fi is no longer a nice-to-have, but an essential service and an integral part of what we do as a business and as a healthcare provider. Our patients expect the best and this means fast, seamless data roaming and voice over Wi-Fi connections, whether as an outpatient in the waiting room or an inpatient in the hospital.”
Meru's UCN was designed specifically with hospitals in mind, allowing the creation of three separate Wi-Fi channel layers.
The Life Critical layer can be dedicated to the most important applications and devices to ensure they run as smoothly as possible. Wi-Fi-enabled devices are used for centralized monitoring to improve clinician productivity in addition to patient safety.
The Mission Critical layer is intended to provide reliable connectivity for devices and applications vital to running a facility, but not involved in the actual care of patients. The best example of a use for this layer would be Electronic Medical Records, but there are many others such as VoIP, Computerized Physician Order Entry and barcode medicine administration.
Lastly, the Consumer Critical layer can be designated to the patients and their friends and family, who increasingly expect dependable Wi-Fi access. In addition to simply meeting expectations and keeping people happy, providing Wi-Fi that enables such interactions has shown a positive correlation with patient mood and treatment effectiveness.
“Aspen Healthcare's deployment leverages Meru's high performing SDN-capable intelligent Wi-Fi solution to provide uninterrupted healthcare,” said Sarosh Vesuna, Vice President and General Manager of Meru’s Enterprise Networking Business. “The Meru solution is a unique selling point for patients, clinicians, staff and guests, and offers a reliable and ubiquitous, mobile environment in which to provide the very best care. With the Meru Uninterrupted Care Network, Aspen can quickly and easily scale its wireless capacity and coverage to on-board new applications and users as it continues to expand its healthcare facilities.”
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Edited by
Maurice Nagle
