Free WiFi to be provided in all NHS buildings

Free WiFi to be provided in all NHS Buildings.

As technology evolves, it is now expected to cut paperwork and errors as well as help satisfy the patient and improving their whole medical treatment and experience.

You would be lying if you said you hadn’t experienced a long wait to see a doctor, and we all know how frustrating low signal and no internet access is in a waiting room. The reason behind bad signal in a hospital, is quite simply all the interference from equipment scattered around the building, as well as the super strong infrastructure of the building itself.

Now, the NHS have acquired a £1bn technology fund to allow them to offer free WiFi networks and services for patients and visitors throughout the whole of the United Kingdom. Currently, there are hospitals charging for WiFi, and others, unbelievably not providing any WiFi at all – a nightmare to patients wanting to keep in touch with their family and friends in often traumatic and stressful circumstances.

With mobile, clinical systems and handheld devices now replacing paperwork in hospitals, super-fast WiFi is critical and patchy signal could cause huge anomalies when it comes down to the transfer of highly important and sensitive information. When lives come into the hands of technology, hospitals need to make sure they have the finest wireless technology available – achieving highest speeds and acquiring minimal interference.

A spokesman for the department of health mentioned that greater use of e-prescribing can reduce medication errors by 50%. Patients could wear monitors to alert staff to issues, which will help more than one-fifth of diabetics who have experienced a largely avoidable hypoglycaemic episode while in hospital.

No Deadline has been set for this massive ongoing project to be carried out, but the government expects the NHS to be ‘Digital and paperless’ by 2020.

Introducing Smart WiFi for Healthcare

WiFi is a key factor in healthcare, from providing real-time monitoring, locating clients, keeping clients entertained and supporting patient-centred workflows.

The influx of technology into healthcare means paper documents will soon be a myth with tablets and electronic devices taking over, not only saving money, but time and resources. WiFi will enable fast access to patient records, speed up processes and allow staff to communicate freely between each other.

Many healthcare organisations are therefore turning to Ruckus Wireless. Installing ZoneFlex Smart Wireless LAN systems with adaptive antenna arrays, allows for the best possible connection in the most difficult conditions. ZoneFlex offers a full featured wireless solution that enables a strong, persistent WiFi coverage with 30-50% less access points than our competitors. Access Points such as the R710 is the perfect choice, and surpasses its competition by having MU-MIMO 4×4:4 IOT ready.

Cloudpath

Cloudpath joins the gap between personal devices and enterprise grade security to allow BYOD and IT-owned devices to join a network on a secure, user friendly and scalable manner. Cloudpath can function with any Ruckus WiFi solution, to utilise encrypted connectivity just as easily as unencrypted. Working with your existing infrastructure, cloudpath can deliver a secure, reliable connectivity across all verticals.

SmartZone 100 and VSZ

Both the SmartZone100 and the Virtual Smart Zone are the perfect management tools for a Ruckus WiFi Network. With their ability to manage over 1,000 APs from one single controller, they can also support 25,000 clients at any one time. With healthcare sites being able to choose whether to manage their network either through a physical controller or remotely on a virtual platform means that every Wireless network can be completely tailored to suit the needs of the hospital or health centre. This means patients and clients will be guaranteed the best experience throughout their stay and staff’s minds can be put at ease knowing that they are getting a reliable and fully managed solution 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

SPoT Location Services

SPoT can pinpoint client locations in real time, provide footfall analytics and can be up and running within a day for any venue size. Spot can be purchased as a cloud-based subscription or a virtual spot (vSpoT), which Is a virtual instance of the service deployed on premise. Enterprises can use SPoT to absorb location data into their own applications.

With technology evolving exponentially, the way our healthcare system works and functions needs to as well. Luckily, this transition is made easy, affordable and successful through the deployment of Ruckus Wireless Technology.