Bon Secours Hospital optimise WiFi coverage with Ruckus

The Bon Secours Private Hospital in Galway has been providing acute medical care to patients across Ireland for 65 years.

The Challenge

To function efficiently, achieve its care objectives and maintain high levels of staff, patient and visitor satisfaction, Bon Secours Private Hospital, need secure and reliable Wi-Fi connectivity.  Unfortunately, the hospital’s existing wireless network was unable to consistently deliver the required coverage across its large site and cater for increasing bandwidth applications.

To address the coverage issues, the hospital decided to upgrade the wireless environment to Ruckus Wireless’ latest 11ac technology.

Solution

After evaluating several wireless products, the hospital’s facilities team chose Ruckus ZoneFlex smart wireless technology and IT services specialist – Mainline, to deploy and manage the network. The hospital established that Ruckus was the only system that could significantly enhance connectivity performance across its whole site. Mainline was favoured as it possessed an excellent track record of Ruckus implementations.

Mainline conducted a comprehensive hospital site survey to ensure optimal signal performance and recommended, a 47 access point deployment. This configuration was less than expected due to Ruckus’ superior BeamFlex antenna technology and was more cost-efficient than solutions proposed by other vendors. This meant that the recommended Ruckus solution, which also had a performance guarantee, wasn’t just the most effective – but also delivered the best value.

Supplied by value added wireless distributor Purdicom, Ruckus’ ZoneFlex R500 APs were deployed by Mainline consultants at the hospital site – ensuring that zero network downtime was experienced. Ruckus’ smart antenna technology sends a signal directly towards client devices and monitors the results. Ruckus’ access points also achieve a longer range and faster data rates – enabling the hospital to experience better reception for weak and “hard-to-hear” devices.

In the event of interference, Ruckus ChannelFly allows the hospital to continuously move client devices away from more congested channels, creating a much clearer channel to send data across. The hospital’s new wireless network is fully managed via Mainline’s cloud-based service – using Ruckus’ Virtual SmartZone platform.

Benefits

The hospital is now experiencing a highly reliable Wi-Fi network, with better connectivity and significantly faster internet access speeds – enabling an improved communication experience for all. Wi-Fi access has been extended to visitors in lobbies, waiting rooms, cafés as well as some plant and boiler house areas – which were originally outside the project’s scope. The enhanced network is also enabling new initiatives to be introduced, including an on line food ordering system for patients.

Lorcán Gill, Facilities Manager at Bon Secours Hospital said:

Previously, we had issues with our wireless network. With Ruckus, we now have an excellent system that provides the Wi-Fi coverage required for all our users – and a stable platform for critical applications to be added over time. Mainline delivered the installation smoothly and provide excellent system management and support. I would recommend Mainline and Ruckus to any organisation that requires fast, consistent Wi-Fi coverage.

Morgan Finucane, Wireless Solutions Manager at Mainline Group added:
“Dealing with Purdicom is always a pleasure, they provide great product knowledge, vendor technical support and help in promoting our brand values to the wider industry.”