The Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trustis deploying one of the UK's most advanced networks to
improve access to healthcare information and speed up service
delivery.
The Trust, the fourth largest in the UK, has signed a
multi-million pound agreement with
Cisco to
implement a single information and communications infrastructure,
starting this month and scheduled for completion by March 2010.
The network will include foundational networking technologies
and
security appliances to deliver secure and fast fixed and
wireless networking and will be managed using Cisco unified
communications software and collaboration tools.
The centralised WiFi network will be used to provide real-time
wireless accesses to information at the bedside and ensure medical
staff can be contacted anywhere in the hospital.
The implementation will also include
radio frequency identification (RFID) systems to monitor and
locate expensive equipment.
Ian Smith, head of service design and innovation for the Trust,
said the Cisco network would enable the Trust to exploit the
capability of new technologies to improve patient care, reduce
waiting times, and eliminate duplication of information.
"We are planning an infrastructure platform where clinicians can
access, share and collaborate on healthcare information faster and
more efficiently," he said.
Andrew Fearn, director of health informatics at the Trust, said,
"The network will offer huge benefits to the 'releasing time to
care' programme by enabling our clinical staff to spend more time
caring for patients and ensuring that the most current information
is always available at the point of care."