Medical-Grade Network Connects Baptist Health South Florida

Baptist Health South Florida is one of the largest healthcare organizations in the region, encompassing a network of five major hospitals and more than 23 satellite locations that extends throughout two counties. Baptist Health has a reputation for excellent clinical care and for bringing advanced clinical technologies to the aid of patients. Today, nearly every aspect of patient care in Baptist Health hospitals is supported by clinical applications, delivered via a ubiquitous wired and wireless network.

"Everything from our emergency department, pharmacy, clinical areas, financial operations, and medical records and more is now digital," says Gilbert Albornoz, director of telecommunication and network for Baptist Health. "Technically, there is no area in our hospital operations today that isn't relying on the network to function." In addition to supporting so many functions, the Baptist Health network is increasingly supporting critical patient systems. That means that in many areas, patient lives may literally depend on the availability and performance of the health system network. For example, clinicians in the emergency department and on patient floors rely on a Cisco® wireless network to access patient records, lab results, and pharmacy tools that help avoid dangerous drug interactions. The wireless network also supports hospital voice systems upon which doctors and nurses rely. The network even supports applications that monitor patients in the intensive care units, and the transfer of heart monitor data and patient vital signs to nurse stations.

To support all of these vital functions, Baptist Health needed to help ensure that the network infrastructure provides rock-solid reliability and continuous uptime, while still providing rich features and services. Because hospital applications must operate 24 hours a day, the health system also must minimize planned network outages for maintenance or software updates. And yet, with the need to protect that the network is protected with the latest security and software patches, occasional updates cannot be avoided.

Find out how Baptist Health South Florida overcame these challenges when you download this full case study.