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One of the largest hospital trusts in the country, the Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, has selected Meru Networks, a leader in intelligent Wi-Fi networking, to support its new clinical SmartCare project and patient services.
The 802.11ac wireless network will cover three primary areas of the Trust, including the Cheltenham General and Gloucestershire Royal Hospitals, with plans to roll it out across all sites in the future.
The Meru network is expected to provide fast, seamless, robust wireless access for staff when the Trust goes live with a new Electronic Patient Record (EPR) system, as part of the SmartCare project, later this year. SmartCare will see the Trust move away from paper notes towards a fully digital patient information system to help provide safer, more efficient and effective care for patients.
Meru’s unique channel layering technology is designed to enable the Trust to run different services on different wireless channels, allowing clinical services to be run separately from other highly used patient services, and ensuring the security and integrity of confidential patient data is maintained.
Henry Batten, Meru Networks, explains: “The Trust has a very clear vision for its IT and this revolves around its new mission-critical clinical service, SmartCare, as well as the provision of patient services in wards and open areas. From the outset we highlighted Meru’s unique technological advantages and why a single channel approach would work for them. Channel layering was a key advantage, as we’re able to offer differentiated services on different wireless channels, which is absolutely critical within a healthcare environment like this.”
Working with partner European Electronique (EE), Meru will replace the existing Aruba system and roll out the new network, including 1600 AP832 access points, an MC4200 controller, Meru Connect for secure on-boarding of guests and visitors and Meru Network Manager (formerly E(z)RF) to provide centralised monitoring, visibility and control of the WLAN.
The Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is one of the largest hospital trusts in the country and provides high quality acute elective and specialist care for a population of more than 612,000 people. The Trust was formed in 2002 with the merger of Gloucestershire Royal and East Gloucestershire NHS Trusts and runs both Cheltenham General and Gloucestershire Royal Hospitals.
