Canadian Hospital Keeps Connected with Cisco DNA

Not everyone works at a hospital, but understanding how the IT department at London Health Sciences Centre and St. Joseph’s Health Care London in Ontario, Canada transformed their wireless network is important, no matter what industry you work in. The crux of the hospital’s problem was this: over 15,000 employees were having a difficult time connecting with each other.

Sound familiar?

Take Dr. Tom Janzen, as a physician and Chief Medical Information Officer, he wasn’t always in his office. Whether it was being asked to speak at a conference across the province or other pulls on his time, Dr. Janzen found it difficult balancing being accessible to his medical staff while at the same time delivering medical courses and speeches. Thanks to the Cisco Digital Network Architecture (DNA), that balance has returned.

Cisco DNA allows the hospital campuses act as a single entity, sharing real-time data securely and reliably. In other words, the entire medical staff is connected. Patient data is no longer hand written notes, the notes are done on mobile devices. The staff can view correct patient information on mobile devices too, they no longer have to hunt down a patient’s chart. And Janzen can use Cisco collaboration solutions allowing him to give a speech in Northern Ontario, while never leaving his office.

“I’m able to do two or three presentations on the same day, complete my clinical work and be home with my family in the evening,” Dr. Janzen said. “That would have been possible before.”

Dave Schned, Integrated Director of IT Infrastructure added that thanks to connected mobile workstations, the hospital has seen a 40 percent improvement in adverse medication events.

“In two years, we’ve grown from 2,000 mobile devices to 10,000,” Schned said. “Cisco DNA helps insure device growth drives innovation, not extra administration burdens.”

But how did London Health Science Centre and St. Josephs’ Heath Care get here? It begins with the proper infrastructure. A comprehensive WAN and LAN connect to Cisco Aironet 2600, 3600 and 3700 Series Access Points along with Cisco 5520 Wireless Controllers. Add to it the Cisco Catalyst 2900, 3500 and 6500 Series Switches and you have a fast and reliable connection between the seven hospitals.

Cisco DNA is not just about cutting-edge Wi-Fi, using Cisco Prime ups the network security for a place that truly needs it. Proactive monitoring is just one way that Cisco security not only finds the bad guys, but gets rid of them too.

“Our Cisco network brings it all together,” said Glen Kearns, Vice Present of Diagnostic Services and CIO. “Having a solid platform for digital healthcare is vital. We’re able to work more efficiently, flexibly and securely and deliver better patient outcomes and quality of care to our patients.”

To read the entire case study, click here.