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The world is undergoing a wireless revolution where we are seeing rapid proliferation of WiFi enabled devices such as phones, handheld gaming consoles, and net books. The adoption of mobile devices and WiFi equipment in the healthcare industry is no exception. Hospitals around the world have implemented wireless networks as a means to enable numerous applications that center around improved patient care, greater efficiency, and cost savings. As such, many world class healthcare facilities boast an enterprise grade WLAN network that can meet the needs of deploying public wifi networks for patient and visitor access across the same infrastructure. Many hospitals have already deployed wireless technologies to enable doctors, nurses, and other hospital staff to quickly and efficiently access patient medical records, lab imaging, medical assessment data, and to track hospital assets. As such, these hospitals are required to adhere to stringent patient privacy requirements which are declared in The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA). This act has created a demand for WiFi equipment that meets its security standards and has naturally driven the adoption of hardware that meets the requirements of delivering a public internet service. In this white paper, we provide the best practices of deploying a public Internet hotspot across an existing WLAN infrastructure that handles sensitive patient data and medical records. Our experience in working with healthcare providers has paved the way for our recommendations.
WiFi for Healthcare Hotspots – Best Practices In surveying our customers, Pronto was able to learn that the drivers behind enabling public Internet access are simply the patients and visitors. In the same way that visitors have requested Internet connectivity at hotels, airports, and restaurants; many of the same customers are seeking services at hospitals so that they can stay connected to their email, browse the internet, and to chat with family and friends. As the demand increases, hospitals are faced with the dilemma of constructing a solution that supports their users while securing their back-office operations that utilize the existing network. Hospitals have selected the option to install a Service Gateway that enables public Internet services across an existing WLAN network. Hospital IT staff prefer this model as it leaves their existing network infrastructure intact while adding only one network element that enables the following services:
The Service Gateway enforces the policies that are provisioned via the Pronto Unifi OSS suite; this software is offered as a hosted solution to customers in healthcare via a Managed Services Program. Pronto offers the MSP program because we recognize the following two points:
Most hospitals tend to labor over the details of operating a public internet service on their own and overlook the availability of programs such as the MSP. The common result is that hospitals abandon this plan because the resources and budget needed to launch the service can make the endeavor cost prohibitive. In a Managed Service, hospitals can look outside of their IT department to deliver everything that is needed to support a public internet service while maintaining control of all the hardware that is present in the network.  Using the Service Gateway as a delivery mechanism for Pronto’s Managed Services, we have packaged a comprehensive solution for hospital customers. Pronto hosts its Unifi OSS software in a datacenter using a multi-server design with load balancing and redundancy built into the core architecture of the MSP. The result is a reliable platform which can support thousands of hospitals globally. Pronto's service includes:
How to deploy
Because Pronto understands developing public WiFi networks, we have been able to forge successful partnerships with hospitals. The majority of customers we support use the following best practices for their public hotspot implementation. Partitioning the network - Hospitals typically deploy in Layer 2 and will configure a VLAN on their existing wireless network which will host only public internet traffic. The VLAN will only be available on the access points that the hospital determines to be a valid area to offer services. It is on this VLAN that the Service Gateway is configured to provide service control. Internet connectivity - Hospitals must adhere to strict privacy statutes and as this is the case, many will order a separate internet drop to provide connectivity. This internet connection will only connect to the VLAN that has been configured for the service and would not touch any other traffic that occurs over the network. 
Content filtering - Many hospitals want to restrict access to various destinations on the internet because of inappropriate subject matter. They have found that content filtering services will block content that they do not want patients or visitors to access on the network. Advertise the service - Pronto has seen the best adoption rates amongst hospital patients and visitors for those venues that choose to advertise the service on their websites and to place wall placards with instructions on how to access the service in the hospital waiting rooms and patient rooms. Beyond these best practices, hospitals will use the Pronto MSP and Service Gateway to turn up the public Internet service. IT admins will deploy the Service Gateway in between the WLAN network and the internet router that has been provided by their ISP. Hospital product marketing will determine at what costs they will provide the service and program that into the Unifi OSS. Once these activities are complete, the service is now provisioned and available for purchase from end users without requiring an overly complicated project to manage. Benefits
The overall benefits of developing the public Internet service is in two areas. Hospitals are now able to satisfy the requests of patients and visitors who want connectivity. In the past, the users had seen an SSID from the existing wireless network but could not connect, now these users can gain access to the network either for a fee or for free as determined by each hospital. The second benefit is that some hospitals will choose to offer the service for a fee to recoup some of the costs incurred with developing the public access network. In Pronto’s MSP there is minimal upfront capital that is required to get a relationship started. As a result, we have seen our hospital customers provide services in the following increments and recoup their investment capital in the first 2 to 3 months of having the service available. In addition, the lead time to turning up a service is about 1 month as our MSP will help to shave off time and activities required in order to turn up the service. |
