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Healthcare organizations have a data-dense Wi-Fi environment. How can you avoid performance issues from congestion?
In the realm of health management, network consistency and reliability are crucial to patient safety and positive health outcomes. And because hospitals can be extremely dense areas with many users gathered in small areas, Wi-Fi performance can be impacted.
Over half of hospitals reportedly spend 500 hours annually on Wi-Fi maintenance. This is why healthcare organizations are budgeting for technology more and more, including wireless network monitoring tools to ensure that Wi-Fi networks perform well and service is uninterrupted.
So, what can administrators do to ensure that Wi-Fi performance isn’t disrupted by density or congestion? 7SIGNAL addresses these concerns directly with an automated diagnostic and repair process, allowing issues to be resolved in 30 seconds or less.
How density can impact Wi-Fi performance
Hospitals have to deal with large numbers of people using the network across devices. There are numerous staff members, patients, and visitors, all of whom may have smart devices of some kind. And professionals need to be able to communicate with one another while connected to the network.
A health provider must also remember that if patients or family members can’t access the Wi-Fi network in the waiting areas right away, they may become frustrated with the institution overall – and provide reviews that lower patient satisfaction scores that may impact funding.
In addition to congested networks due to a high volume of users, these organizations also must deal with the fact that there is a constant flow of information from a variety of medical devices throughout the environment. This density, caused by both human congestion and device information sharing, can produce interference opportunities within the Wi-Fi network and end up causing connectivity problems.
Because every institution is different, the first step to solving the density issue is to monitor the network. By viewing what kind of congestion most impacts interference and network consistency, organizations can then better manage those risks and causes. Decisions become more informed, and necessary changes can be made based on specific environments. Organizations should aim to proactively and continuously monitor and measure interference, comparing it to how the network is performing at a given time. Only then can the risk of service disruptions be minimized.
In our current technological climate where the Internet of Things (IoT) and business intelligence tools are rampant, knowledge is power and allows health professionals to continuously improve processes. This applies to Wi-Fi networking: the more you know and can view in real-time, the easier interference and coverage issues are to solve.
How automated Wi-Fi performance management can help
Hospitals need to focus on patient care, not connectivity issues. Automation of the network infrastructure provides instant reporting and alerts and helps organizations monitor clients and APs in real-time. This is how organizations can implement issue solving in 30 seconds or less and reduce the downtime of any device connected to the Wi-Fi network.
With 7SIGNAL’s tools and systems, proactive measurements are constantly being taken. These measurements don’t interfere with the networks but allow data to be stored via directional antenna array capture. This data shows trends and valuable information, whether over long periods of time or a few hours. The antenna direction can be analyzed to locate and identify specific sources of an interference.
7SIGNAL stands out from other providers in that the technology can measure the network with analytical devices, allowing for passive network views while still providing a holistic perspective. These tools help healthcare providers deliver the highest quality of care by reducing the number of time organizations are spending on Wi-Fi performance management.
The system is comprised of performance measurement tools that continuously run in the background to ensure IT staff is alerted as soon as something looks off. 7SIGNAL also ensures that the electronic health record (EHR) is accessible to every device so that providers across the organization see the same accurate patient information.
The team at 7SIGNAL believes that healthcare organizations can improve patient safety, patient outcomes, and patient satisfaction by implementing these unique Wi-Fi performance management solutions. These tools allow organizations to continuously monitor performance and troubleshoot the Wi-Fi network, sending alerts automatically when any issues arise, even before users complain.
To learn more about how 7SIGNAL’s tools and solutions can improve your network, get in touch our team today. You’ll then be able to implement network solutions that keep you focused on providing effective healthcare, not connectivity.