Redesigning Wireless For Success

By Brian Albright, Field Technologies

Boston Medical Center reduces support costs and adds functionality with a wireless LAN upgrade.

Wireless networks have been common in hospitals for well over a decade, but the last few years have seen an exponential increase in both the variety and number of devices operating on those networks. Also increasing have been the number of clinical devices now communicating wirelessly and the number of physicians and other staff using both hospital-owned and personal mobile devices. Throw in a proliferation of guest networks adding hundreds or thousands of devices to the load each day, and it becomes painfully obvious how an aging wireless network can bog down.