Wireless Network Keeps Hospital Patients Connected
— Mar 25, 2009
Hospitals know how to provide life support. Now, MedStar Health, the largest healthcare system in Maryland and Washington, D.C., is showing it knows how to provide Internet support too.
MedStar Health has deployed wireless Internet services to patients and visitors throughout its community-based network of hospitals together with Aptilo Networks, a provider of integrated management solutions for control of billing, user services and access in WiMAX and Wi-Fi networks. MedStar Health is using the Aptilo Guest Internet Services for Healthcare, an integrated, secure wireless guest Internet access solution that meets the unique needs of the hospital sector.
A non-profit regional healthcare system, MedStar Health has rolled out the wireless guest Internet access to Georgetown University Hospital, National Rehabilitation Hospital and Washington Hospital Center in Washington, D.C., and to Franklin Square Hospital Center, Good Samaritan Hospital, Harbor Hospital and Union Memorial Hospital in Maryland.
MedStar Health uses Aptilo’s software-as-a-service (SaaS) option for delivery of wireless guest Internet access services, the Aptilo Guest Internet Services. With this hosted solution, Aptilo operates the wireless broadband service from one of Aptilo´s Network Operation Centers.
Aptilo’s solution provides patients and visitors with secure, easy-to-use high-speed wireless Internet access. Patients can remain connected to friends and family with e-mail, surf the Internet and engage in other online activities from their hospital bed.
In addition a separate Guest Provisioning Portal allows MedStar Health personnel to create accounts that are valid for longer periods and have a predefined start and end date. This functionality is designed specifically for long-term visitors like medical students.
“By using one common infrastructure design, hospitals can increase the value of their network by allowing employees, patients, visitors, students, tenants and business partners to share the same wireless infrastructure and to do so in a secure way,” says Jason Guest, account manager at Aptilo Networks. “Aptilo’s solution, specifically designed for the healthcare segment, ensures that patients and visitors can only access the Internet for a predefined period in a way that does not violate hospital security policies. It also relieves the local IT staff of time-consuming administrative tasks.”
The network is a “tremendous benefit” to MedStar’s patients and families, says Catherine Szenczy, senior vice president and CIO of MedStar Health. “Aptilo’s solutions and services were the right choice for us, as Aptilo has the expertise and experience to manage large-scale deployments of guest Internet services to hospitals,” she says.
Robust Offering for the Healthcare Segment
Aptilo’s Guest Internet Services provides a next-generation guest Internet access service that can be used by all MedStar hospitals with the lowest possible cost of ownership. It is based on the customer’s existing wireless infrastructure — in MedStar’s case, Cisco’s Wireless LAN Controller and Lightweight access points — and the Aptilo Service Management Platform, enabling employees, patients, visitors, students, tenants and business partners to share the same infrastructure in a secure way.
Aptilo acts as a SaaS provider to centrally operate the guest Internet access. Aptilo provides server hosting, authentication, authorization, accounting (AAA) services, a Web server, portal management, service monitoring, statistics and reporting, and end-user support. Aptilo’s flexible design also enables MedStar to roll out the service to multiple hospitals in a cost-efficient manner.“This is the latest in a series of hospital deployments by Aptilo in the [United States] and Europe,” Guest says. “We are proud to be working with MedStar Health in providing carrier-class wireless Internet services to their healthcare system.”
MedStar Health is a $3.5 billion non-profit, regional healthcare system with a community-based network of eight hospitals and other healthcare services in the Maryland and Washington, D.C., region. As the area's largest health system, it is one of the region's largest employers with more than 25,000 associates and 5,000 affiliated physicians.
