Solutions for Healthcare

Industry Trends

Prompted by escalating costs, shrinking revenues, and expanding regulations, healthcare organizations are seeking every advantage that new information technology can offer. As early as the late 1990s when the first WLAN solutions emerged, healthcare organizations recognized the benefits of mobile applications and became early adopters. Using the proven ability of wireless IT applications to improve treatment at the point of care and to support clinical decisions by providing instant access to medical records, healthcare organizations have been able to improve responsiveness and treatment accuracy and to save lives as well as millions of dollars. In addition, recent improvements in wireless infrastructure security and advanced applications, such as location-based tracking and voice over WLAN, have provided further gains in productivity and patient care while simultaneously addressing government privacy regulations.

Improving Patient Care and Medical Staff Productivity with Cisco Unified Wireless Network

As the adoption of wireless LANs in healthcare organizations has grown, so has the number of ways in which mobile applications are used. Healthcare providers can use the Cisco Unified Wireless Network for:

• Patient registration: Simplification of patient registration through self-administered check-in.
• Patient medical records: Input clinical of data at the point of care, which reduces transcription errors while allowing other healthcare providers instant access to the most current patient medical history.
• Prescription automation: Immediate look up of adverse drug interactions, patient allergy information, patient-specific dose checking, coupled with accurate information from the latest medical reference guides.
• Treatment verification: Simple verification of patient identity using barcodes providing more accurate treatment, medicine delivery, and the additional benefit of streamlined insurance billing.
• Real-time, mobile voice communication: Improved access to the closest and most appropriate caregiver using wireless IP communications.
• Materials management: Ordering, distribution, and safe dosage monitoring of patient prescriptions through barcode scanning of new supplies to departments, minimizing errors, overstocking, or out-of-stock situations.
• Hospital equipment tracking: Active RFID tags provide real-time location tracking of critical medical equipment to gain better asset utilization.

Wireless LANs and advanced mobility applications, combined with the appropriate clinical information systems, staff support, and mobile computing devices, have the ability to significantly improve the accuracy and efficiency of medical treatment at healthcare organizations. Wireless technology that provides the proper security, manageability, and support for advanced applications can help ease the load on understaffed organizations and drive productivity gains in many areas.

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