Santa Cabrini Hospital adopts Bell-designed virtual LAN with wireless access to improve employee productivity and increase efficiencies

In an effort to deliver better healthcare, Santa Cabrini Hospital in Montréal implemented a unified messaging solution on a virtual local-area network (VLAN).  Bell was brought on to work with Santa Cabrini Hospital’s IT staff to design, install and manage the network. 

About Santa Cabrini Hospital

Santa Cabrini Hospital in Montréal is a primary response community hospital and health centre renowned for its onsite cancer care as well as specific programs connected to the cultural and ethnic components of the Italian community. To guarantee quality patient care, the hospital does its utmost to incorporate advanced technology solutions that will improve caregiver productivity and increase overall efficiencies.

The business challenge

When Santa Cabrini began construction on a new emergency room, the hospital’s IT team knew that the existing infrastructure would not be efficient enough to handle the extra capacity. At the time, mission-critical applications such as voice, data, medical equipment, and telephony were running on separate networks, putting a strain on both bandwidth performance and IT management. Further, there was no wireless access within the hospital so caregivers had to scramble to a hardwired PC every time they needed to check a patient’s file or update a medical report. This was time-consuming and took away time from patients.

The solution from Bell

Based on Bell’s extensive experience in network design, development and project management, the hospital’s IT team called upon Bell to come up with a plan. After analyzing Santa Cabrini’s entire IT infrastructure, Bell designed and implemented a wireless voice and data network, incorporating voice over IP (VoIP) and unified messaging.

Today, Santa Cabrini’s new emergency room incorporates a virtual local-area network (VLAN) with mobility at its core. Twenty Nortel wireless IP telephones complement 60 wired ones, making it easier for healthcare workers to communicate quickly with colleagues whether they are in the hospital or at a remote location. More than a dozen wireless heart monitors have also been installed, making Santa Cabrini the first of its kind in North America to run a biomedical device on a unified network. Physicians and nurses can manoeuvre easily from bedside to workspace without reconnecting a machine every time.

The results

The Bell-designed VLAN combined with unified messaging is helping Santa Cabrini improve quality of care. It provides medical personnel with instant access to vital signs, imaging and other critical patient information regardless of where they are working. The network supports electrocardiogram monitors and other clinical devices as well as fixed and mobile IP phones and computers, making patient care more cost-effective by eliminating the need for separate, dedicated communications networks.

Bell has been with Santa Cabrini every step of the way. For instance, when the heart monitors’ wireless cards proved unreadable by the hospital’s wireless network, Bell handled all related testing and ensured compatibility. Although the timeframe was short – just six weeks to meet the opening of the new emergency room – Bell implemented the wireless project on time and on budget.

“Bell was our one-stop shop for network design and project management,” said Angelo Bodo, Manager, Information Systems and Telecommunications, Santa Cabrini Hospital. “As a result, we’re delivering better healthcare to the people of Québec.”

Wireless Professional Services from Bell

Bell offers a range of professional services – including project management, network design, engineering, installation and system integration – to enable enterprises to realize optimal gains from wireless initiatives.

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