BridgeWave Communications has announced that the Franciscan Health System (FHS) has selected its unlicensed 60 GHz, AdaptRate (AR) 60 radio (shown below) for uninterrupted gigabit connectivity and extremely low, or negligible, latency performance to assist in the deployment of multiple gigabit wireless links, which guarantee secure transmission of Picture Archiving and Communication Systems (PACS), voice, and data communications between several hospitals and its service center.
“We place a high demand on our network solutions here at FHS. With PACS, VoIP and literally hundreds of other mission critical applications riding our network, availability, reliability, security, and performance are critical to the success of the business,” said Ryan Drovdahl, the network supervisor at Franciscan Health System.
“Implementing gigabit radios in place of leased line services has not only produced superior performance at a low cost, we’ve also realized greater end to end visibility and control over our network environment.”
Officials at BridgeWave claim instant information sharing can make the difference between life and death for patients that are attended to by the fairly well spread out network of FHS healthcare facilities and associated medical centers including its five hospitals, primary and specialty care medical group, same-day surgery centers, hospice and palliative care services, occupational health and physical therapy clinics, and centers for advanced medicine.
FHS’ existing licensed 100 Mega bits per second (Mb/s) microwave radios became a service that was technologically unprepared and a newer technology platform was needed to deliver high, real-time speeds while guaranteeing dual direction interoperable communications and connectivity between disparate applications.
In the aftermath of the disasters caused by Hurricane Katrina and the twin towers going down, citizens as well as the government identified interoperable emergency communications on a National scale were the top most priority.
The company said FHS also required a cost effective solution that could handle its significantly increased media rich and data intensive digital traffic streams, and Moonblink Communications helped them to identify BridgeWave’s 60 Giga Hertz (GHz) AdaptRate (AR) 60 which signals even in the most adverse weather conditions; operates in a narrow beamwidth, which is excellent for enhanced security; the uplink and downlinks are always available; can possibly save the FHS network up to $ 500,000 spread over half a decade; meets Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act’s (HIPAA’s) stringent regulations; and, has a performance that rivals fiber cable for quality and speed.
“Given the critical transmission of patient information, reliability, network security and compliance to HIPAA regulations are vital in running today’s healthcare networks,” said Amir Makleff, Chief Executive Officer at BridgeWave. “BridgeWave is pleased that our 60 GHz gigabit wireless links are providing Franciscan Health Systems with a highly available, economical LAN-like network solution.”
Vivek Naik is a contributing editor for HealthTechZone. To read more of Vivek's articles, please visit his columnist page.
Edited by
Stefania Viscusi
