Medical Center Delivers CareFusion Pyxis Application with Wi-Fi Deployed Over InnerWireless’ Distributed Antenna System (D

544-bed University Medical Center of Southern Nevada demonstrates Wi-Fi over DAS to be a superior alternative for assuring wireless performance at the point of care

RICHARDSON, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- University Medical Center of Southern Nevada (UMCSN) – the state’s largest hospital and only Level I Trauma Center – is powering its new CareFusion Pyxis® Specimen Collection Verification system with Wi-Fi delivered by the Horizon distributed antenna system (DAS) from InnerWireless®, Inc., the premier provider of end-to-end in-building converged wireless solutions.

UMCSN chose to replace its conventional WLAN system with Wi-Fi delivered over DAS to ensure that the required quality of service (QoS) would be available at every patient bedside across its eight-building, 850,000-square-foot main campus.

The InnerWireless Horizon DAS was designed specifically to meet UMCSN’s requirements for seamless, uninterrupted wireless connectivity across its facilities, with guaranteed coverage and signal strength.

“From day one, the DAS met or exceeded the minimum signal strength guaranteed to us by InnerWireless, and unlike our previous conventional WLAN deployment, we didn’t experience coverage gaps or dropped sessions,” said M.J. Ernie McKinley, CIO of UMCSN. “In fact, CareFusion’s certification team concluded that Wi-Fi delivered over the DAS helped UMCSN achieve the best wireless coverage and most consistent signal strength of any hospital they had certified. They confirmed that the CareFusion Wi-Fi devices could be taken anywhere in our campus without ever losing connectivity.”

In addition to receiving continuous Wi-Fi connectivity for mission- and life-critical applications at the point of care, UMCSN’s decision to deploy its WLAN on the InnerWireless DAS has driven wireless reliability to new heights while dramatically reducing the number of wireless related IT help-desk calls.

“Our new wireless solution has been operational for more than a year and we have received only one wireless related help-desk call,” McKinley said. “We also have realized a 70-percent reduction in IT man-hours spent on wireless infrastructure support, which enables IT resources to focus on creating value by investigating new solutions that can help clinicians care for our patients.”

UMCSN plans to implement additional wireless capabilities including the CareFusion Pyxis® Med Administration Verification system and smart pumps.

“Our use of the wireless network has grown significantly since deploying the InnerWireless converged wireless platform. Mobile clinicians across the organization have experienced what it can do and they trust it,” McKinley said. “We have already adopted more than a dozen new wireless applications, including guest Wi-Fi access that doesn’t interfere with our clinical applications. Despite the number of applications running on our new WLAN deployment, we estimate that we are only utilizing 20 percent of our available capacity, which is due largely to WLAN capacity improvements enabled by InnerWireless.”

UMCSN’s new wireless solution consists of 355 dual-band access points connected to the DAS. And because access points can be collocated and readily accessible to IT staff, the medical center has realized savings on installation and maintenance costs. The solution also allows UMCSN to take full advantage of its WLAN switch architecture, and it gives UMCSN centralized control from its secure data center.

“UMCSN has demonstrated that hospitals can confidently and successfully use an alternative methodology for deploying WLAN – Wi-Fi over DAS. This solution delivers not only voice- and enterprise-grade wireless throughout a large, multi-building campus but consistent wireless coverage to the edge – at the patient bedside,” said William Holman, InnerWireless’ senior vice president, sales and marketing. “With a service area covering 10,000 square miles, UMCSN has a tremendous responsibility to its hometown of Las Vegas, the state of Nevada and beyond. InnerWireless is proud to help UMCSN fulfill its mission of providing the highest level of healthcare possible.”

About InnerWireless

InnerWireless is the premier end-to-end in-building wireless solution provider for healthcare, enterprise, hospitality and government markets. With Horizon – a broadband, Converged Wireless platform – InnerWireless ensures the delivery of all wireless services including 3G/4G, fire/life/safety, Wi-Fi and medical telemetry – guaranteed. Designed expressly for mission- and life-critical wireless applications, Horizon’s comprehensive, antenna infrastructure enables pervasive coverage and optimized capacity. InnerWireless also offers a suite of wireless professional services, including interoperability testing, to optimize the customer’s wireless ecosystem. For more information about InnerWireless, visit www.innerwireless.com.



CONTACT:

Jetstream PR for InnerWireless
Tony Katsulos, 972-788-9456, ext. 301
[email protected]

KEYWORDS:   United States  North America  Nevada  Texas

INDUSTRY KEYWORDS:   Technology  Networks  Practice Management  Health  Hospitals  Mobile/Wireless

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