Platte Valley Medical Center Deploys Wireless Telemetry Over InnerWireless Infrastructure In New State-of-the-art Hospital
InnerWireless’ scalable, future-adaptable, broadband wireless infrastructure provides ultra-reliable wireless coverage for multiple wireless services, applications and devices
InnerWireless®, Inc. the leading provider of in-building wireless solutions, today announced that Platte Valley Medical Center will deploy Horizon, InnerWireless’ medical-grade wireless utility, into the new medical center. Horizon provides guaranteed wireless coverage for life and mission-critical wireless services and applications including: WiFi (802.11 a/b/g), VoIP, first-responder, two-way radios and paging. In addition, the hospital will integrate WMTS (wireless medical telemetry service) from a global healthcare solutions company along with Horizon to provide ubiquitous monitoring throughout all four buildings of the 50-acre campus.
The deployment of WMTS on Horizon means that patient vital signs can be wirelessly monitored from anywhere in the hospital, even during transport to medical tests and procedures. For example, a post-surgery heart patient can be moved from the recovery room to their patient room without interrupting heart monitoring, thus maintaining a contiguous patient medical record.
By deploying Horizon, Platte Valley Medical Center intends to create a safer and more efficient mobile workplace by minimizing communication and patient care disruptions caused by inadequate wireless coverage and capacity. This provides clinicians and caregivers the ability to communicate and wirelessly access information anywhere, anytime. Instead of scribbling notes at the bedside and racing back to a computer at the nurse’s station to update a patient’s record, clinicians can enter information directly into a computer on wheels (COW) or tablet PC in the patient’s room.
“Development of wireless applications for healthcare is extremely fast-paced. We did our best to design the hospital building to have the flexibility to accommodate and implement technology opportunities well into the future,” said Harold Dupper, chief financial officer of Platte Valley Medical Center. “Through our vendor, InnerWireless, and the extensive infrastructure they installed, we now have a comprehensive state-of-the-art wireless strategy in place.”
To enhance the patient and visitor experience, Platte Valley Medical Center also will deploy several hospitality-type applications to provide more amenities. These include bedside admittance, registration and discharge in the emergency department, a WiFi café, and WiFi access in patient rooms. Platte Valley Medical Center also has a wireless paging system that alerts patients and visitors when their doctor becomes available or when they need to report to a certain area for a test, giving them freedom to visit the Bistro and other public areas of the hospital.
Platte Valley Medical Center Chooses InnerWireless
Horizon will support first-responder communication mandates made by the Brighton Fire Department, which required the hospital to provide full in-building coverage for the department’s two-way radios. Whether in hospitals, enterprises or high-rises, Horizon ensures that first responders can maintain communication once they enter the facility without the need for additional wireless systems.
“InnerWireless is very excited that Platte Valley Medical Center chose Horizon to be a part of its new state-of-the-art facility,” said Rick Gentry, vice president of healthcare at InnerWireless. “It is very rewarding to provide leading healthcare executives a technology platform that supports their enterprise wireless strategy to enable more efficient and higher quality patient care.”