Extreme Networks has announced that several healthcare organisations across the globe have deployed Extreme solutions to provide secure, best-in-class patient care, and improve operations across their facilities. Concord Hospital and Prima CARE in the US, West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust in the UK, Elisabeth TweeSteden Ziekenhuis (ETZ) in the Netherlands, Charité in Germany, ASST Mantova in Italy and the CHU Dijon Bourgogne in France chose Extreme to protect sensitive patient data, support bandwidth-intensive medical applications and devices and automate time-consuming processes.
Secure, reliable and high-performing connectivity is critical in healthcare settings, as new devices and applications are added to the network each day. Whether it’s deploying an innovative medical application, extending telehealth services or meeting new operational requirements around billing and patient services, healthcare facilities need a high-performing, scalable and secure network to continue to deliver consistent and exceptional patient care. ExtremeCloud IQ and WiFi solutions help automate processes such as medication administration, patient monitoring and room assignments, and help reduce manual errors and improve efficiency across the facility.
Flexible infrastructure lowers costs and simplifies integration. This was demonstrated when Concord Hospital, a not-for-profit regional health system in New Hampshire, needed to integrate two smaller regional hospitals into its network without sacrificing consistency of care or interrupting operations. Leveraging Extreme WiFi 6 Access Points and Universal Switches, the hospital was able to easily update its infrastructure across all three sites without a full rip and replace, providing a foundation to run best-in-class medical applications. Additionally, with Extreme Fabric Connect, the health system was able to securely automate the attachment of users and devices from the two smaller hospitals, without heavy IT involvement.
Prima CARE, a growing multi-specialty group in Massachusetts, needed to upgrade its wireless network to keep up with patient and staff needs. With near-daily performance issues, staff couldn’t consistently use devices like tablets when moving from room to room, and patients commonly had issues using their personal devices. With ExtremeCloud IQ, the sole network manager can easily monitor network performance from a single application, make changes as necessary in real-time, and more easily keep firmware updated. With staff and patients no longer reporting WiFi issues or downtime, Prima CARE can add more devices and digital services that rely on the network, including increased video traffic and upgraded medical devices, and trust that its network will be able to support them.
Healthcare organisations worldwide, including the CHU Dijon Bourgogne in France and ASST Mantova in Italy, use Extreme Fabric Connect to better ensure security across their environments. Fabric Connect enables organisations to segment network traffic based on customisable criteria, such as device or user type. This helps to ensure patient safety, as in the event of a cyberattack. Healthcare providers can more easily identify what part of their network is affected and isolate it to ensure other parts of the network are not impacted. This helps prevent lateral attacks and avoid unnecessary outages or hospital shutdowns.
Mark Starry, CTO, Concord Hospital said, “Without Extreme Universal Hardware, it would have been much more difficult to absorb and integrate two regional hospitals. And with Extreme Fabric Connect, we were able to complete the integration in a matter of weeks, versus years, without sacrificing uptime, security or a consistent flow of operations. Outdated technology holds so many organisations back from reaching their full potential. Extreme makes it simple to make those necessary upgrades without ripping out the entire ecosystem of hardware. Our patients and medical care professionals will greatly benefit from our new high-performing network. Applications will run more smoothly, doctors will be able to access information more quickly and patients will continue to receive best-in-class care.”
Andrew Smith, Head of Digital Service Delivery, West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust commented, “Our wireless network is the central nervous system of our operations – driving everything from access to patient records to blood pressure monitoring to advanced radiology applications, and everything in between. With WiFi 6E from Extreme managed through ExtremeCloud IQ, we can effectively manage devices and applications across our network, improve the quality of telehealth visits and benefit from faster transmission speeds for large data files such as MRI, radiography and ultrasounds. This will dramatically improve patient care and ultimately make our staff more productive, while making it easier for our IT staff to add new applications and evolve our technology strategy alongside medical advancements.”
Doug McDonald, Director, Extreme Alliance in the Office of the CTO, Extreme Networks said, “For a healthcare provider, the network really is the lifeblood of the organisation. Everything from workstations at patient check-in to medical devices that monitor patient vitals or tablets used for video calls is powered by the network. By providing an exceptional experience and automating time-consuming tasks, healthcare organisations can improve patient care, access critical information, improve operational efficiency and benefit from significant cost savings.”
