Wireless network improves security and accuracy of records at Southampton hospital

In a nutshell
Organisation:	Southampton University Hospital (SUHT)
Problem:	SUHT needed to speed diagnosis, improve patient treatment, reduce the risk of administrative errors in record keeping, and support advanced mobile applications to boost efficiency throughout the hospital.
Solution:	The implementation of a wireless network throughout the hospital, including connectivity in sterile operating theatres, which would otherwise be compromised by cabling.
Supplier:	Aruba Networks
Benefits:	Seamless integration of secure wireless connectivity optimises service delivery, increases accuracy and improves patient experience. Enables electronic patient records to be updated immediately, thus reducing the risk of transcription errors. Allows connectivity in sterile environments such as operating theatres in order to support picture archiving communications systems (PACS).

Southampton University Hospital NHS Trust (SUHT) is one of the UK’s most successful healthcare organisations, providing hospital services to approximately 500,000 people living in Southampton and South West Hampshire and specialist services (such as neurosciences, cardiac services and children's intensive care) to more than 3 million people in southern England and the Channel Islands.

In the same way that the hospital looks to provide exemplary medical care to the south of England, SUHT expects exemplary performance from its wireless network — the secure mobile infrastructure now in place, to allow its medical staff to be both more productive during their working days and more accurate in their record keeping.

In 2006, SUHT identified a clinical requirement to speed up diagnosis, improve treatment and reduce the risk of administrative errors that they felt could best be met by introducing a ‘data entry and retrieval at the point of care’ programme. The deployment of a new wireless solution throughout the hospital was a key enabler for this programme.

Additionally, the hospital’s operating theatres are particularly suited to wireless use, as it allows even the most sterile environment to be maintained. Breaching the theatre to allow cabled access is a significant concern to hospitals and SUHT can now offer wireless connectivity to the high-resolution screens providing a picture archiving and communications system (PACS), which effectively replaces wet film (xray images).

The network has now been implemented in the general and neurology theatres at the Southampton General Hospital, the Princess Anne Hospital, and SUHT’s Medical Health Records Centre, with additional expansion planned for the future. One of the key benefits will be the ability to input data to central databases and to update electronic patient records immediately at the point of care, rather than waiting for support staff to input the notes at a later time. Coupled with increased efficiency, direct data entry reduces the risk of transcription errors, and so addresses the needs of the hospital to improve data quality.

Due to the need to maintain patient confidentiality, it was important that any wireless solution be fully secure. The network, by Anuba Networks, was secure from the moment it was deployed, automatically securing the wireless space throughout the hospital. It was also able to immediately identify and disable potentially damaging rogue networks. It could also defend against other threats — such as ‘man-in-the-middle’ attacks — by encrypting all data from the client directly through to the controller.

Ryan Hewitt, SUHT’s senior network and security analyst said: “The Aruba solution was easy to deploy and very secure, and was used to replace equipment from two vendors that could not deliver the required functionality or reliability. Security is a major concern for any enterprise, but it is absolutely crucial for a healthcare institution to ensure the full protection of all confidential patient data. With the Aruba network we were able to accomplish that objective.”

The Aruba network has opened up an array of technological opportunities for the hospital. As a result, SUHT will in the future be looking to introduce location based services such as radio frequency identification (RFID) devices to track equipment through the hospital, and is currently considering trialling voice over internet protocol (VoIP) communication systems such as Vocera’s, already in use in several UK hospital trusts.

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