May 3, 2004
Health Data Management
Winfield, Ill.-based Central DuPage Hospital is offering wireless access over two separate networks for its staff and patients. To enable clinical staff wireless access to patient data, the hospital worked with Overland Park, Kan.-based Sprint PCS to enhance the vendor's mobile phone network inside its facility. The network was enhanced with technology from Spotwave Wireless Inc., Ottawa, Canada, to ensure the phones worked in traditional dead zones, such as elevators and stairways. About 300 members of the Central DuPage Hospital's clinical staff were given the choice of using Treo 600 smart phones from Milpitas, Calif.-based palmOne Inc. or Ready Link mobile phones from Sprint over the network. They now use the phones, which run the Palm OS operating system from Sunnyvale, Calif.-based PalmSource Inc., to access clinical data from the hospital's Horizon Mobile Care Rounding software from San Francisco-based McKesson Corp. Clinicians also can use the Ready Link phones over the network like walkie-talkies to communicate with other caregivers at the hospital. The software enables mobile access to lab, radiology, vital signs, patient history and medication lists throughout the hospital via the phones. The hospital's wireless local area netowork, previously used by clinicians to access data via laptops, now is used exclusively by patients and visitors. Using a laptop with Wi-Fi capabilities and a Sprint PCS Wi-Fi account, guests can have Internet access throughout the hospital via the network. For more information on the mobile health care technologies, go to www.sprintbiz.com/solutions/healthcare.
