Wireless Solution

Wireless Solution

Carilion Clinic

The Solution: After researching with Gartner, the world's leading information technology research and
advisory company, and evaluating various vendors, Carilion selected InnerWireless' Horizon™, a system that unifies virtually all wireless services onto a converged wireless solution that guarantees coverage. The administrators were impressed with Horizon's highly engineered design, which allowed for a non-invasive installation around the complex architectural challenges presented by the hospitals' various additions and renovations. The low maintenance and scalability of the infrastructure and InnerWireless' foresight and professionalism also were key factors for their selection. Horizon's layout was customized based on a comprehensive site survey that evaluated the RF challenges presented at each building. Within 12 months, Carilion deployed Horizon in three facilities totaling 2.3 million square feet. The first installation at the flagship, 875-bed Roanoke Memorial Hospital returned positive results, such as improved workflow from quicker and easier access to patient information and enhanced communication. Horizon was immediately deployed in the Carilion New River Valley Medical Center and the Carilion Roanoke Community Hospital to ensure that they also had coverage for their mission- and life-critical handheld devices, cellular phones, wireless IV pumps and fetal monitors, as well as wireless access to the main HIS and ambulatory systems.

"As our hospitals move toward total mobility, it is imperative that our wireless devices and applications have guaranteed wireless coverage, a key deliverable that InnerWireless has already provided in our flagship hospital," said Kendall White, senior director of technology services at Carilion Clinic. "The deployment of Horizon was a strategic investment that heightens the quality of care we provide with quicker, easier access to patient information, increased patient safety, enhanced communication and more efficient processes. The positive outcomes from InnerWireless' initial deployment led us to make the commitment to deploy its Horizon system in our other hospitals."

With guaranteed wireless coverage, Carilion's clinicians provide more consistent and patient-centered care. Laptops and tablet PCs give clinicians more time to spend at each patient's bedside with complete and unfettered access to patient information. Medication is now administered at the point-of-care via carts that house a prescription checking system, which helps reduce medication errors. Carilion also has agreements with Nextel and Verizon to integrate macro cells with Horizon to provide cellular services.

Carilion plans to replace 6,700 one-way pagers and is already utilizing more than 1,400 corporate cell phones to provide more immediate access to clinicians. This has improved workflow and reduced the number of communication devices that clinicians carry. They now move freely around the hospital without the fear of a dropped signal or disrupting the continuum of care.

Empowering Carilion's clinicians with wireless clinical tools and applications has eliminated barriers to productivity, enhanced communication, reduced medical errors and improved accuracy and timeliness of care. All these outcomes, in addition to providing laptops for patients to access the hospital's public Wi-Fi for e-mail use, have led to higher patient satisfaction. Carilion plans to add additional applications, including VoIP, telemetry and RFID for asset tracking within the next three to five years, all possible due to Horizon's scalability.

"Healthcare information technology has reached a point where wireless is no longer a commodity but a need for hospitals," said White. "With an infrastructure like Horizon in place, Carilion will continue to leverage the latest wireless tools and devices to provide excellent, high quality healthcare that meets the needs of the community."

Background: For more than 100 years, the Carilion Health System has served southwest Virginia by assuring accessible, affordable, high quality healthcare that meets the community's needs. Now called Carilion Clinic, it is building a healthier future by applying the latest innovations, recruiting the brightest physicians and developing an integrated healthcare system that puts patients first and keeps mobile clinicians connected. However, IT leaders were learning that reactive deployments of discrete wireless LAN systems were not guaranteeing coverage for mission-and life-critical wireless devices and applications, which was impeding care and disrupting communication.

The Challenge: As part of the moving shift to mobility, Carilion estimates having 70 percent mobile devices in use within a few years. It was clear that the system's hospitals needed total wireless coverage, as opposed to select coverage areas. With the discrete wireless LAN systems in place, clinicians grew frustrated because they repeatedly had to log in and out of networks as they moved between floors, and they often missed pages due to wireless dead zones. Carilion administrators desired a solution that would eliminate these barriers and ensure total clinical mobility. However, to make mobility a value-generating asset, it needed a converged wireless solution that would guarantee coverage for all of its clinical tools and applications, everytime and everywhere.

Carilion searched for a vendor that possessed the extensive RF expertise needed to address the RF challenges presented by the hospitals' architectures and building materials, some of which are more than 100 years old. It also sought a vendor that:

• Demonstrated a successful track record of deploying their technology in healthcare organizations
• Understood the needs of a health system, clinicians and patients
• Had experience working in and maintaining sterile environments
• Could provide a scalable solution that would grow with Carilion's evolving technology needs

Download the Carilion Success Story

RFID Solution

Denver Health

The Solution: Cisco and InnerWireless had recently united to integrate technologies, and over the course of a one month pilot, Denver Health determined InnerWireless' PanGo location management platform was already returning positive results. Continued success led to a hospital-wide expansion of PanGo, made possible by the system's highly flexible and scalable design. Denver Health now uses PanGo's active tags and software application to control inventory and monitor equipment maintenance and repair throughout the 1.5 million-square-foot facility.

PanGo has increased the workflow and efficiency of clinicians and staff because medical equipment is located in real-time. For example, prior to InnerWireless, clinicians spent time searching for infusion pumps or wheelchairs. Patient safety is further increased because of PanGo's real-time alerts. At Denver Health, these notifications have improved the biomedical department's response time for equipment maintenance and repairs. This also has contributed to enhanced workflow because the biomedical department staff can address requests more efficiently and locate specific items more accurately.

PanGo's real-time visibility and analysis of the location and status of key assets has helped control spending on frequently used items, especially with specialized equipment, like wound vacuums, which can't be purchased and are leased by the day. By tracking these expensive pieces of leased equipment, the hospital can return the items faster, preventing unbillable costs from aggregating.

Denver Health plans to further adopt PanGo and is currently determining how other departments can benefit from the technology to continue to improve processes, workflow, and most important, the patient experience. As the first location management platform to support multiple RTLS and RFID technologies, PanGo offers Denver Health a scalable solution to meet the hospital's future capabilities, ensuring that Denver Health will continue to serve as a leader in using technology to advance the quality of care it offers its patients.

"PanGo efficiently and effectively locates the tools and equipment that Denver Health providers need for patient care," said Jeff Pelot, chief technology officer of Denver Health.

Background: Denver Health, a 1.5 million-square-foot, 477-bed hospital, cares for approximately 25 percent of Denver's residents. It is the state's primary "safety net" institution, and over the last 10 years, it has provided $2.1 billion in medical services to the uninsured. Recognized as a High Performance Health System by the Commonwealth Fund and as a 100 Most Wired Hospital by Hospitals & Health Networks, Denver Health serves as a model health system by providing coordinated care to the community, promoting a culture of continuous quality improvement, and incorporating new technology into everyday practice.

The Challenge: Hospital administrators had adopted the Toyota Production System's "lean thinking," and were focused on process improvement and finding ways to reduce costs without compromising patient safety. The hospital sought a solution to decrease the over-purchasing of commonly used equipment, such as infusion pumps and wheelchairs, and making better informed leasing decisions of specialized equipment, such as wound vacuums. Additionally, the biomedical department desired a faster way to locate equipment for repairs and maintenance checks. Denver Health realized that to help meet these goals, it could leverage its existing Cisco Unified Wireless Network and Cisco Wireless Location Appliance and integrate a Real-Time Location System (RTLS).  After a bond was passed to construct a new Women and Children's Pavilion and implement cutting-edge technology, the hospital sought a location technology that would operate seamlessly with the Cisco infrastructure and easily allow for future expansion. Hospital leaders were determined to find a vendor with technical know-how, as well as a high level of customer service support, so they turned to Cisco for recommendations.

Download the Denver Health Success Story in PDF format