From Dead Zones to Infusion Pumps

4. Make it a strategic priority. Healthcare organizations cannot implement wireless applications for their needs today, says White. "We have to look four or five years down the road to see where we are going and implement something that can provide capacity for when we get there." Wireless networks should also be viewed as a corporate project, not an IT initiative. It needs to be thought of in the same sense as electricity or water or cooling, says White. Any time you are going to renovate you have to think, 'What impact does that have on the HVAC or wireless network systems?' because if you add walls or put in glass it may impact coverage areas.

It's not wise to skimp on infrastructure, but there are strategies organizations can employ to save money and still provide wireless access. Here are two.

1. Florida Hospital installed a "relatively inexpensive" single-carrier solution from MobileAccess at an administrative office. The single-carrier solution works because the health system has a preferred cellular carrier for its employees and the facility has limited visitors. If, in the future, the system needs to reallocate that space for a different purpose and convert the system to a multiple-carrier system, it can "keep the expensive components in place and upgrade some of the end points," says Todd Frantz, chief technology officer. "The single-carrier solution is so inexpensive that it is not quite a 'throwaway,' but it is getting close."

2. Carilion Clinic purchased computers on wheels for its nurses to access the wireless network while rounding on patients rather than hardwiring every patient room for wireless. One of its hospital wings has 36 rooms, for example, so it was more cost-effective to purchase seven mobile carts versus 36 devices, says Kendall White, senior IT director. "It gives [nurses] the flexibility, but saves us money," he says. Organizations should determine how the wireless application will be used by end users and then make a decision. "Sometimes the wireless solution will be a cost savings, but many times it'll be to make sure you can support the right clinical workflow," White says.

—Carrie Vaughan