Aruba Networks

Aruba and IID deliver increased mobility and time to service for the staff at CHIV hospital

Paris, 29th June 2005 - Aruba Networks has announced that the "Centre Hospitalier Intercommunal de Villeneuve St Georges" (CHIV) has deployed a centralized and secured wireless network for the medical and administrative staff of the hospital. This network improves the quality of the services offered to the patients of CHIV.

After years of experience at the APHP (Assistance Publique - Hôpitaux de Paris), M. Demongeot had joined the CHIV as the network and security officer in November 2002. At the time, the project to extend the network infrastructure and the implementation of a wireless network was in progress. The driver for the deployment of a wireless network within the hospital was partly motivated by practical issues regarding the building but also by the need to offer a total mobility service for the medical staff. In addition, by allowing the medical staff, the nurses and the administration to access information about their patients, and by distributing certain roles, the patients would themselves benefit from a more responsive and more efficient service.

In 2002, a first Wi-Fi solution was implemented but had already reached the limits of its capability while only 20% of the network was deployed. The radio coverage was not sufficient, the performance was low and the service was frequently interrupted.

"It was necessary to triple the number of the user stations over the next 24 months and to guarantee an irreproachable Quality of Service for the staff and, in a wider sense, for the patients who always remain our priority," has stressed Pierre Demongeot. "This was impossible to achieve with the prior solution."

At the end of 2004, the CHIV took the decision to tender for a new wireless solution that would be more appropriate to their requirements. Among the five integrators who responded to the tender, only IID, with its distributor Azenn and the vendor Aruba, has made the effort to provide a real-life test environment with several access points on one floor of the hospital, as required. At the end of these tests, Mr. Demongeot's team was convinced that Aruba solution would fill all the gaps met with the older solution.

"Aruba solution has answered to our prime concern to ensure a sufficient coverage with granular management of the RF and of the bandwidth, and today the staff can move freely on the floors of the care centre, and between floors, with a guarantee performance of the network," continued Philippe Saison, network administrator. "We also needed a solution that would easily integrate within our existing network, that would offer the ease of management, and that would be future-proof because we have plans for many large projects. Those are the inner qualities of Aruba solution. Besides, while the mobility coverage currently remains our priority, we intend to take advantage of all the very powerful capabilities of this solution for security concerning the authentication of the users, the use of VPN for remote access, the firewall, and so on."

The current installation includes mobility controllers Aruba 800 and 2400 and about sixty AP61 access points. The majority of the access points have been installed in the corridors in order to guarantee an optimal coverage for the staff. It is planned to also install access points in the operating theatres so that the medical staff would be able to access the patient files and images that may be relevant during a medical intervention. A large amount of data and applications is already accessible from the wireless service. This includes the management of the patients identity, the ordering of their meals, their medical results, the consultation of archives, and so on. The next services to become accessible shortly include the digital archive of images (PACS), the management of the operating theatres, of the emergencies, of the routine sheets for the anesthetists, and of the resuscitation. Also, as the most expected service, the personal medical file (DMP) with the medical prescriptions and the care plan will be available soon.

In parallel to these deployments, the CHIV will upgrade some older equipment, such as the network cards and the bridges, and will continue to update its wired network so that both environments would be optimized for performance and would operate in a complementary way.

A knowledge transfer has been delivered by IID who has certified several of their engineers on Aruba solutions. The system integrator works jointly with the medical centre for the future improvement projects of its wireless network.

"Today there is a real dynamic spirit in the IT department of the CHIV, which is tied to the venue of Mr. Demongeot and the perseverance and experience of all his team," has stated Mr. Lepretre, technical manager at IID. "They have a vision towards the future and try to anticipate the needs of the medical staff and their patients. This is an approach to which IID can identify itself and which is also shared by Aruba, an innovative company able to anticipate the market demands. The performance, the centralized management, the security and the flexibility of Aruba solutions will ensure that all CHIV projects will be lead successfully."

"The CHIV is a particular important customer for us because, in the medical environment, the requirements for the performance and continuity of mobile services are obviously very high and the efficiency of the patients care often rely on those" concludes Pascal Desaint, general manager for France and Southern Europe at Aruba. "The CHIV, with its technical expertise and vision, has early acknowledged the value that a secured mobility service based on the wireless technology could bring to the medical staff and the patients. For this ambitious project, our partners IID and Azenn have brought to the customer their know-how in the integration of Aruba solutions."

About CHIV

The Centre Hospitalier Intercommunal de Villeneuve St Georges (CHIV) was inaugurated in 1971 by Robert Boulin, then minister for health and social security. Today, the CHIV hospital offers 449 beds distributed between many medical departments of which three for general medicine, one for oncology, one for a mobile unit of palliative care and pain treatment, one for a resuscitation unit, two for specialized surgery, one for pediatric service, one for maternity and gynecology, one for psychiatry, one for the emergency unit and one for long-term hospitalization located 3 miles from the main site. The hospital centre also includes a training centre for nurses and a kindergarten. A few facts and figures on CHIV for the past year:

• 25,588 patient admissions
• 114,057 hospitalization days
• 7,546 surgical operations
• 2,159 births
• 117,583 out-patient consultations
• 62,576 admissions to the emergency rooms
• 1,400 non medical staff
• 300 doctors
• operational budget: about 93.7 billion euros

Visit the CHIV at www.chiv.fr

About IID

Founded in 1995, IID has the mission to interface between the end-users requirements and the technologies available for hardware and software applications. By offering several services from advice, integration, installation and management of large projects, IID helps the enterprises and public organizations to integrate the new IT technologies. With the certification from many leading vendors, and the capability to deliver turnkey and scalable solutions in all the networking areas, as well as in cabling systems and in multimedia IP transport, IID provides an operational field operation throughout Paris region. Their 30% annual growth for the past four years is a testimonial of IID's entrepreneurial and dynamic profile.

About Azenn

Specialized in IT and communications, Azenn distributes a vast array of solutions in the fields of broadband, mobility, security and cabling infrastructure. Its catalogue of solutions is accompanied by the offering of multiple services that include presales support, logistics, technical assistance, and training. With technology partners being the leaders in their specialized fields, Azenn can guarantee to their clients a set of innovative solutions in its three areas of expertise: networking, security and cabling. Azenn is head-quartered in Les Ulis, near Paris, employs 130 people, and has an annual turnover of 25 million euros. Visit Azenn at www.azenn.com

About Aruba Networks, Inc.

People move. Networks must follow. Aruba securely delivers networks to users, wherever they work or roam. Our mobility solutions enable the Follow-Me Enterprise that moves in lock-step with users:

• Adaptive 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi networks optimize themselves to ensure that users are always within reach of mission-critical information;
• Identity-based security assigns access policies to users, enforcing those policies whenever and wherever a network is accessed;
• Remote networking solutions and fixed mobile convergence ensure uninterrupted access to applications as users move;
• Multi-vendor network management provides a single point of control while managing both legacy and new wireless networks from Aruba and its competitors.

The cost, convenience, and security benefits of our secure mobility solutions are fundamentally changing how and where we work. Listed on the NASDAQ and Russell 2000® Index, Aruba is based in Sunnyvale, California, and has operations throughout the Americas, Europe, Middle East, and Asia Pacific regions. To learn more, visit Aruba at http://www.arubanetworks.com.

© 2008 Aruba Networks, Inc. AirWave®, Aruba Networks®, Aruba Mobility Management System®, Bluescanner, For Wireless That Works®, Mobile Edge Architecture, People Move. Networks Must Follow., RFProtect, The All Wireless Workplace Is Now Open For Business, Green Island, and The Mobile Edge Company® are trademarks of Aruba Networks, Inc. All rights reserved. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.