Growth and Flexibility

For healthcare providers to stretch operating budgets while meeting present and future needs, they require high-value communications systems that are flexible, cost-effective, and inexpensive to own. Solutions must expand affordably to support growth and new technologies without the costly replacement of equipment. They must also be resilient to ensure the continuity of vital medical care. If disaster strikes, these systems must allow services to be restored quickly.

Data
Due to trends like aging populations, medical advances, and new technologies, healthcare providers require versatile networking solutions that can adapt to change without substantial costs. They need standards-based systems to avoid interoperability issues with legacy or future systems. They must integrate disparate databases and consolidate information systems for greater efficiency. Their networks should support the delivery of care where and when it is needed across a range of devices and locations.

Moreover, providers' networks must scale cost-effectively to support new users and future generations of medical and business applications. They need to distribute bandwidth and functionality as needed to deliver web-based systems, telemedicine, and other healthcare innovations. Their solutions must be resilient and always available, ensuring the continuity of medical services. If disaster does strike, they must be able to restore communications rapidly.

Voice
Healthcare providers require versatile voice services that easily support new applications and users. Their solutions must integrate all employees within the organization, regardless of their locations, into a cohesive, simple-to-manage telephony infrastructure. They need to reduce costs while enhancing communications within the enterprise and with patients and third-parties. Voice services also must be able to grow without expensive and wholesale replacements of legacy components. Moreover, telephony must be reliable and resilient, ensuring that caregivers and patients can always communicate without disruptions.

Wireless
To enhance the delivery of medical care as well as their market competitiveness, healthcare providers are turning to a new generation of portable devices that improve productivity, reduce costs, and accelerate services. The systems capture, process, and share vital medical information far more quickly, eliminating errors due to repetitive data entry and poor handwriting. They enable staff to conveniently access web-based applications that expedite processes like patient scheduling, diagnoses, medical research, and billing. To be effective, however, caregivers must be able to use them anywhere within a facility or campus.

To support these technologies, healthcare providers need the flexibility of pervasive wireless networking. With untethered connectivity, caregivers have full access to information, test results, scheduling, and messaging, whether in labs, clinics, or offices. Wherever they go, they bring their data and applications with them, saving time and money as well as bolstering the quality of services.