Poole Hospital Opts for Alcatel-Lucent’s Wireless LAN

With the aim of improving patients' care at its 789-bed hospital, Poole Hospital NHS Trust is adopting the wireless local area network from Alcatel-Lucent which will be installed by Alcatel-Lucent Business Partner Khipu Networks. The new network is based on the Alcatel-Lucent OmniAccess WLAN technology.

 The technology will be used in association with printed patient wristbands to ensure patient safety by automating blood donation tracking and ultimately streamlining the process of dispensing drugs.

Poole Hospital opted for the Alcatel-Lucent solution because of its high availability, the ease with which it integrates with the Trust's existing Network Access Control solution, and its scalability. The initial rollout will provide up to 400 staff with wireless access and is capable of supporting more than 10,000 devices.

Alcatel-Lucent helps dynamic enterprises like Poole Hospital NHS Foundation Trust interconnect their networks, people, processes and knowledge for competitive advantage through strengthened relationships, simplified communications, and improved performance.

Khipu Networks, which already manages the hospital's NAC (Network Access Control) solution, won the contract to undertake the new WLAN installation based on the high level of knowledge, support and responsiveness it provided. Post-deployment, Khipu will offer network support, and will be involved in the rollout of new services over the wireless network.

The Trust plans to add voice over IP (VoIP) to the wireless network in 2009, which will dramatically reduce the Trust's telephony costs. Among those tested by Poole Hospital, only the Alcatel-Lucent WLAN could seamlessly support the handover of calls between wireless cells without loss of quality.