HIPAA, EuroSOCAP, and MEDIS-Related Applications for Healthcare Facilities

Healthcare facilities represent an application-rich environment for secure wireless LANs. The industry's rapid adoption of new technology (such as voice over IP - VoIP), regulatory pressures, ongoing efforts to improve the quality of care and reduce medical errors, and industry initiatives to enhance workforce productivity and lower costs all lend themselves to secure wireless LAN-based solutions.

Healthcare is typically delivered by teams of healthcare providers, all of whom need to remain in close contact to afford patients the best care - an application for which wireless VoIP is tailor-made. Similarly, the need to enhance staff productivity has driven much of the demand for real-time location systems to support asset tracking, improve patient flow processes and protect patients and assets from leaving defined perimeters.

Applications that enhance the delivery of quality care are being widely adopted. These applications include patient monitoring and medication management, and electronic medical record access via Computers on Wheels (CoWs), PDAs, and tablet PCs. Using 802.11n and other standards-based wireless LAN components to implement these tasks eliminates the need for the proprietary networks formerly used for these applications, while facilitating compliance with the many regulations governing healthcare including HIPAA, EuroSOCAP, and MEDIS.

Aruba Technology Provides Assured Application Delivery For Mission-Critical Applications

Aruba provides a common networking infrastructure that will securely and reliably support mission-critical and routine operational healthcare requirements. The robust design delivers superior network availability through client load balancing, redundant subsystems, fast roaming for application persistence, and automatic detection and correction of coverage holes. Quality of Service (QoS) over the wireless link is performed using standard 802.11e/WMM or vendor-specific protocols such as Polycom/SpectraLink SVP. Aruba's application awareness provides assured voice application delivery via Voice Flow Classification (VFC), recognizing common voice protocols such as SIP and assigning it priority. VFC delivers superior performance for converged devices such as softphones that generate both voice and data traffic.

Application Awareness Is Required for Voice and Streaming Video Applications

Clinical application mobility is a critical healthcare requirement. Medical professionals must be able to access patient medical records from anywhere within a hospital, at remote clinics, and from home offices via mobile computing devices such as tablet PCs, CoWs, and PDAs. Secure access, application persistence, and low latency handoffs are essential to maintaining continuous connectivity with mobile devices, especially where thin-clients (e.g., Citrix) are used to protect patient information.

Secure remote access is available through Aruba's Remote Access Point, which provides the same security and access to remote users as they enjoy within the enterprise. The Remote Access Point requires no local configuration or local IT staff support - once connected to a wireless router in the physician's home or office, the AP will find a pathway back to the hospital data center, establish a secure IPsec tunnel, and start working.

Valuable capital assets as well as staff can be located and tracked in real-time over an Aruba network. Besides speeding the availability of resources for use where they are most needed, real-time location sensing and RFID tagging can reduce theft, assist with capital equipment auditing, and ensure that equipment remains in environmentally-controlled areas.

Real Time Location Sensing Over an Aruba Network Quickly Finds Staff and Capital Assets

Aruba's high-availability 802.11a/b/g/n wireless LANs provide an ideal solution for data, voice and video applications typically found at healthcare institutions. Intelligent access points work in concert with Aruba's Mobility Controllers to ensure highly reliable application delivery, while optimized packet management, automatic network adaptation, and QoS provide a level of performance not found elsewhere.