The Impact Of Next Gen Wi-Fi Technology On Healthcare

By Ruckus Wireless

The mobile healthcare delivery model of 2010 and beyond demands critical business and clinical application performance. These demands place unique requirements on current wireless LAN (WLAN) systems for the healthcare market. Recent innovations in 802.11 technology can have a profound impact on improving healthcare mobile application performance and lower the total cost of ownership.

Life critical application performance has become an absolute requirement for the healthcare marketplace. A dropped call during a code-blue response or an alert/alarm not being received by a caregiver can impede workfl ow and result in negative outcomes or sentinel events. WLAN requirements for 2010 are vastly different than the requirement of 2008 or even 2009. So what are the requirements that will demand that this medium perform to the utmost?

WLAN deployments in hospitals are not just confi ned to one department or several departments. They are becoming ubiquitous within the hospital and across the Integrated Delivery Network (IDN). These application requirements have evolved beyond laptops on carts for the electronic medical record to voice over IP communication and other priority medical applications. These unique medical applications include the deployment of hundreds of wireless "smart infusion pumps" and "wireless enabled" patient monitors that traverse not just the step down unit, or single department, but provide "wireless transport patient monitoring anywhere in the hospital."