Aerohive WLAN assists in healthcare Wi-Fi initiative

NHS Lincolnshire Applies Intuitive 'Cooperative Control' Wireless LAN

NHS LINCOLNSHIRE, A PRIMARY CARE TRUST in the UK, is responsible for both improving the health of its citizens, and for the delivery of health services across the county. It commissions (planning and buying) healthcare for over 700,000 people, and manages a wide range of community based services such as local GP surgeries, community hospitals, and clinics.

NHS Lincolnshire is also responsible for the procurement of operational services, including information technology. Managing the provision of Network Services, with a team of 25 IT professionals, is senior network and systems manager, Tony Arnold MBCS.

"We manage the delivery of IT services and systems to over 200 sites, including GP surgeries and clinics. Having a central team to identify, implement and manage the IT needs for NHS Lincolnshire ensures consistency and quality of services across the county, as well as the spending power to secure best value from suppliers," says Arnold.

The Challenge
The mobilization of healthcare delivery in its community hospitals, clinics, and GP surgeries, is a key element of NHS Lincolnshire's IT strategy. With wireless-enabled devices already issued as standard to remote and roaming staff, such as GP's, Consultants and District Nurses, Arnold wanted to extend the same flexibility and mobility benefits to on-site employees using mobile technology.

Arnold explains, "Mobility is a key enabler of healthcare provision, significantly improving the availability of healthcare professionals, bedside medical care, and accelerating the diagnosis-to-treatment process. The benefits make a compelling proposition for management and healthcare professionals, who face daily budget and resource challenges.

"My priority, then, was to identify a wireless infrastructure capable of supporting the evolving demands of a healthcare environment – one that delivers continuous connectivity, resilience and security, and which is self-sufficient in its operation."

Finding a solution that was both future-proof and easy to scale was also essential. The initial roll-out to 12 sites would support mainly administrative data, but in the long-term, wireless will become the primary communications infrastructure for all NHS Lincolnshire's sites and mission-critical medical applications.

Cooperative Control Wireless LAN Solution
To meet these objectives, Tony and his team conducted an extensive review of the wireless LAN (WLAN) market and discovered that

Aerohive was dramatically different from the other products evaluated. Aerohive's cooperative control access points (HiveAPs) running 802.11n technology require no network controllers or overlay networks. Instead, software in the HiveAPs enables them to self-organize into groups called Hives. The result is enterprise-class network management and security without the cost, performance, and availability issues associated with controller deployments.

Arnold adds; "When managing and maintaining the IT needs of a distributed organization, any reduction in hardware makes a significant difference. No other WLAN provider was able to compare in this regard."

Go Live!
Working closely with a team of technical engineers from Aerohive, the WLAN deployment to all 12 sites, from planning through to full roll-out, took just one week. Aerohive provided all site surveying and RF planning, and incorporated a series of training sessions for the IT department and administration managers at each site. Tony adds, "The ease of deployment reinforced our decision to select Aerohive – from the outset, the WLAN just worked. Not only did this mean we could start to realize a return on investment almost immediately, but, when we're ready to scale-up the solution, we can do so quickly and easily."

Since the implementation of Aerohive's WLAN, a key benefit for Tony has been how little maintenance the solution requires.

"For multi-site organizations, Aerohive's technology is ideal. The dynamic intelligence within the HiveAPs means they are capable of operating themselves, and the central management platform allows us to remotely monitor and apply policies or firmware upgrades as required, massively reducing the need for onsite maintenance," says Arnold.

"IT is recognized for its ability to increase efficiency throughout an organization, and to automate previously time-consuming tasks; our WLAN is no exception. Healthcare professionals can access and update medical notes 'on the run', and patients, in turn, are getting a far more efficient and informed service. What makes this technology exceptional, though, is how little it demands of our IT department. Ultimately, this wireless infrastructure has outperformed expectations for both users and IT department," concludes Arnold.