Feature Story

By Stacy Williams, News@Cisco

January 27, 2004

Jokes are often made about physicians' illegible handwriting, but in many ways it is not a laughing matter. The use of handwritten information in a hospital environment can lead to inadvertent inaccuracies and increased inefficiencies.

At The Indiana Heart Hospital, part of the Community Health Network, physicians and clinical staff use wireless networking from Cisco and laptops to enter and retrieve patient information, often at the point of care, giving everyone access to completely legible data in an instant. A Cisco IP telephony and wireless networking solution has enabled the facility to go completely film-less, promoting delivery of the highest possible level of cardiovascular care.

"As recently as one year ago, clinical staff could spend up to an hour per day searching for the correct paper chart for any given patient. Now, that time is reduced to simply logging on and scanning the patient's wristband—usually less than 15 seconds," says Chris Cerny, manager of Community Health Network's Enterprise networking team. "Additional time is saved because doctors' orders are easily legible, and doctors need not be contacted for confirmation."

The Cisco solution, deployed with the help of Cisco partner Network Solutions, Inc. of Granger, Indiana (NSI-Granger), not only improves patient care, but also results in substantial cost savings. Upon opening in February 2003, the hospital accrued initial capital savings of US$300,000, simply from not having to purchase or lease a traditional private branch exchange (PBX) system. Additional cost savings resulted from not having to install a separate wiring infrastructure.

"Working with Community's staff and the local Cisco team, we implemented a voice network that has significant savings over a traditional phone switch with enhanced flexibility that only an IP-based solution can provide," says Bill Tadevich, vice president of sales for NSI-Granger.

The wireless network at The Indiana Heart Hospital uses Cisco Aironet access points and client adapter cards. Cisco Catalyst switches and Cisco PIX firewalls ensure high-speed, redundant Internet connectivity. In addition to The Indiana Heart Hospital, Cisco gear is used throughout Community Health Network.

Redundancy for high availability is built into the Cisco architecture. Two main distribution frames are located in The Indiana Heart Hospital, and each Catalyst switch has dual routing capabilities.

For IP telephony, the hospital installed nearly 350 Cisco IP phones. Cisco CallManager call-processing software provides seamless communication between the Cisco IP telephony solution and traditional PBX systems installed in other Community Health Network hospitals.

A Cisco VPN concentrator provides data security for the wireless local area network (WLAN). The VPN uses advanced encryption help the hospital safeguard sensitive patient information.

For wireless IP phones, Community Health Network selected IP handsets from Cisco partner SpectraLink as Cisco wireless IP phones were not available at the time that the hospital was making purchase plans. Now that they are available, the hospital plans to go with Cisco equipment as it rolls out wireless IP telephony to other hospitals.

"Community Health Network standardized on Cisco because Cisco equipment is reliable, Cisco support is always available and accurate, and the equipment is scalable," says Cerny. "Cisco takes great care in making sure it is thinking like a customer thinks, and Cisco invests in and develops those technologies that will benefit the enterprise customer."

For clinical staff and physicians, the Cisco solution provides convenience and more. Because information is typed rather than handwritten, accuracy and efficiency are greatly improved.

Convenience is also improved for patients. Wireless IP phones have been integrated into the hospital's "nurse call" system. By pressing a button on the pillow, a patient can contact and converse via a pillow speaker with the nurse on duty, who carries a wireless IP phone.

This represents a major advancement in patient responsiveness and staff efficiency. There are no central nursing stations at The Indiana Heart Hospital. They have been replaced by smaller nursing pods, comprised of a PC and a Cisco IP phone, located outside every room. The design brings clinicians much closer to patients, promoting enhanced patient care.

"Making the nurse-call system wireless helps unify our entire communications network, and it's no exaggeration to say that quick communication is a critical element in enhanced patient care," says Cerny.

Additional applications for the wireless network are now under consideration, including tracking inventory using bar-coding and just-in-time shipping for operating room equipment. For management of the WLAN, Community Health Network is considering CiscoWorks Wireless LAN Solution Engine (WLSE) to provide centralized management of access points and wireless bridges.

While some hospitals are wary of new technology, The Indiana Heart Hospital has found that the use of advanced Cisco IP telephony solutions has been nothing but beneficial. Moving to IP telephony has been a major contributor to staff efficiency and patient welfare, not to mention a huge cost savings for Community Health Network. Soon, the same WLAN system installed in The Indiana Heart Hospital will be deployed at several other hospital campuses.

"The heart hospital was designed with the intention of going entirely to IP telephony," says Cerny. "There are no traditional telephone services here. We were laughed at by some providers, but the system works wonderfully, and the critics' silence is delightfully deafening."

Stacy Williams is a freelance journalist located in Dutch John, UT.