Largest Safety-Net Hospital in New England
Upgrades to 802.11ac Across Four-City Block Campus, Tests Aruba’s
Meridian Mobile App Platform for Wayfinding and Patient
Services
HIMSS15--Aruba Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ: ARUN) today announced
that Boston Medical Center (BMC), a private, not-for-profit,
482-bed, academic medical center in Boston, MA., is deploying
Aruba’s 802.11ac and mobile app solutions to enable a campus-wide
Gigabit wireless network with indoor location services that will
benefit physicians, staff and patients.
Boston Medical Center (BMC), the largest
safety-net hospital in New England, will use Aruba Networks Gigabit
Wi-Fi and mobile app solutions to improve physician and staff
efficiencies and advance patient care. (Photo: Business Wire)
With more than 26,064 admissions and 874,770 patient visits in
the last year, BMC is undergoing a major clinical campus redesign
project, which will include expanding wireless coverage and
upgrading to 802.11ac in all 30 existing buildings, as well as the
renovated and expanded Menino Pavilion, Yawkey Center and Moakley
Buildings. In addition, the Medical Center plans to implement
Aruba’s Meridian mobile app platform to allow physicians, staff,
patients and visitors to more easily find their way around campus,
as well as access important information and services.
As part of the clinical campus redesign, BMC, which also serves
as the teaching hospital for Boston University School of Medicine,
will consolidate its campus into a smaller footprint for more
efficient operations. A key part of this project is the network
upgrade that will accommodate the increase in new wireless and
mobile devices and new applications coming onto the network, a
transition from the hospital’s multiple outdated Electronic Medical
Records (EMR) systems to a new, one record, EPIC system, and
support for the more than 450 laptops on mobile carts that doctors
and nurses are using throughout the medical center to record
patient data.
“We’re seeing about 3,000 devices on the network every day,”
said Craig Reise, manager of Network Infrastructure and Engineering
for Boston Medical Center. “These include medical devices such as
handheld glucometers for blood sugar readings, infusion pumps, lab
specimen collection and barcode printing systems, as well as the
personal mobile devices of staff, physicians and of course, our
patients and visitors. With the number of these devices growing at
a rapid clip, we need to be sure that our wireless infrastructure
can handle both the density and variety of devices on the network
without sacrificing performance.”
In addition, Reise noted that BMC wanted to eliminate “dead
zones” as well as deliver pervasive coverage across all of its
facilities including challenging areas like the lead-lined walls of
the radiology rooms. “In an environment like ours, wireless LAN
design and testing is critical to ensuring success and pervasive
wireless coverage,” he said. “And having that highly reliable,
pervasive coverage is key to making sure that doctors and nurses
can get patient information quickly and from anywhere in the
hospital – whether at a station or bedside with a mobile cart – as
well as locate the equipment they need for their patients’ care as
quickly as possible. Exceptional patient care is always the end
goal.”
According to Reise, BMC had previously used Aruba gear and when
it came time to upgrade the network, there was no question that
Aruba would continue to be their wireless networking partner. The
Medical Center is deploying Aruba 220 Series 802.11ac Access
Points, 7200 Series Mobility Controllers, AirWave network
management and the ClearPass Access Management solution for mobile
device authentication and access.
“Aruba was a great partner in helping us through design,
planning and implementation,” said Reise. “In a working hospital,
you can’t afford to have disruption of services to patients, so
planning ahead to ensure that access points were placed in the
right locations, for example, was crucial to a smooth transition
and roll-out, and Aruba helped us through all of these stages.”
Reise also noted that BMC relies heavily on AirWave for visibility
and troubleshooting of the network. “We don’t have a dedicated IT
staff just for wireless so a network management tool like AirWave
saves us a great deal of time and energy when it comes to viewing
and isolating any network issues.”
With over 1,100 802.11ac devices already Wi-Fi CERTIFIED™, BMC’s
upgrade ensures greater speeds and higher reliability for the
myriad of devices on their network, and can enable better
efficiencies for clinicians and technical staff, alike. BMC is
using the network to transmit EKG orders and results, send infusion
device drug library updates to more than 1,000 devices, and send
vital sign and ventilator data to their EMR. With these
capabilities, staff receive information in a more timely and
accurate manner and reduce the manual effort previously required to
update and maintain these systems that are so critical to patient
care. BMC also plans to use the wireless infrastructure as the
foundation for applications like asset tracking to keep track of
important and valuable hospital equipment such as wheelchairs and
infusion pumps.
BMC also plans to launch Aruba’s Meridian mobile app platform to
deliver wayfinding capabilities. According to Reise, navigating
BMC’s large campus is a challenge even for hospital staff who
sometimes have trouble locating departments they may not frequent.
With the Meridian mobile app platform, BMC can roll out their own
mobile application to help both staff and visitors find their way
from one department or building to another using indoor navigation
technology.
“The new wireless infrastructure gives us the foundation we need
to accommodate the ever-increasing number of both medical and
mobile devices, as well as new applications that can make our
staff’s jobs easier and improve the care and satisfaction of our
patients and visitors,” said Reise. “With the new Aruba Gigabit
Wi-Fi network, we’re confident that we can continue to deliver on
the needs of our employees and our patients.”
Aruba will be demonstrating its 802.11ac and mobile app
solutions at the HIMSS15 annual conference and exhibition in
Chicago, IL, April 12-15, 2015, booth 1853.
About Boston Medical Center
Boston Medical Center is a private, not-for-profit, 482-bed,
academic medical center that is the primary teaching affiliate of
Boston University School of Medicine. It is the largest and busiest
provider of trauma and emergency services in New England. Committed
to providing high-quality health care to all, the hospital offers a
full spectrum of pediatric and adult care services including
primary and family medicine and advanced specialty care with an
emphasis on community-based care. Boston Medical Center offers
specialized care for complex health problems and is a leading
research institution, receiving more than $118 million in sponsored
research funding in fiscal year 2014. It is the 11th largest
recipient of funding in the U.S. from the National Institutes of
Health among independent hospitals. In 1997, BMC founded Boston
Medical Center Health Plan, Inc., now one of the top ranked
Medicaid MCOs in the country, as a non-profit managed care
organization. It does business in Massachusetts as BMC HealthNet
Plan and as Well Sense Health Plan in New Hampshire, serving more
than 315,000 people, collectively. Boston Medical Center and Boston
University School of Medicine are partners in the Boston HealthNet
– 14 community health centers focused on providing exceptional
health care to residents of Boston. For more information, please
visit http://www.bmc.org.
About Aruba Networks, Inc.
Aruba Networks is a leading provider of next-generation network
access solutions for the mobile enterprise. The company designs and
delivers Mobility-Defined Networks that empower IT departments and
#GenMobile, a new generation of tech-savvy users who rely on their
mobile devices for every aspect of work and personal communication.
To create a mobility experience that #GenMobile and IT can rely
upon, Aruba Mobility-Defined Networks™ automate infrastructure-wide
performance optimization and trigger security actions that used to
require manual IT intervention. The results are dramatically
improved productivity and lower operational costs.
Listed on the NASDAQ and Russell 2000® Index, Aruba is based in
Sunnyvale, California, and has operations throughout the Americas,
Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific regions. To learn
more, visit Aruba at http://www.arubanetworks.com. For real-time
news updates follow Aruba on Twitter and Facebook, and for the
latest technical discussions on mobility and Aruba products visit
Airheads Social at http://community.arubanetworks.com.
© 2015 Aruba Networks, Inc. Aruba Networks’ trademarks include
Aruba Networks®, Aruba The Mobile Edge Company® (stylized), Aruba
Mobility-Defined Networks™, Aruba Mobility Management System®,
People Move Networks Must Follow®, Mobile Edge Architecture®,
RFProtect®, Green Island®, ETips®, ClientMatchTM, Virtual Intranet
AccessTM, ClearPass Access Management SystemsTM, Aruba InstantTM,
ArubaOSTM, xSecTM, ServiceEdgeTM, Aruba ClearPass Access Management
SystemTM, AirmeshTM, AirWaveTM, Aruba CentralTM, and ARUBA@WORKTM.
All rights reserved. All other trademarks are the property of their
respective owners.
Photos/Multimedia Gallery Available:
http://www.businesswire.com/multimedia/home/20150413005120/en/
Aruba Networks, Inc.Pavel Radda,
+1-408-419-0294Director of Corporate
Communicationspradda@arubanetworks.comorLSH Communications for
Aruba NetworksLori Hultin,
+1-818-879-4651Principallhultin@arubanetworks.com