The Latest Aruba Networks (HPE) News
Product and Solution Information, Press Releases, Announcements

DUBAI, UAE, December 8, 2016: Al Zahra Hospital Dubai (AZHD), a healthcare service provider with almost 35 years of experience in providing excellent patient care to the residents of the UAE & GCC, has implemented a high-density, Gigabit wireless network from Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company. The 802.11ac wireless infrastructure has enabled a substantial increase in staff productivity by improving information access and enhanced patient experience.

AZHD has always strived to provide the best possible care for its patients and staff and the technological advancement in the region meant that Mr. Arjiel Guevarra, Network Engineer at AZHD had to provide high-speed Wi-Fi connectivity for the patients, staff and administration department. “We needed to upgrade to 802.11ac technology and required a robust solution as it would be utilized not only by all our patient care departments including patient wards, labs and pathology departments, and clinics, but also by the patients themselves,” said Mr. Guevarra.

Guevarra and his team clearly outlined the requirements for the new solution. “From a technical perspective we needed high-speed, reliability, scalability and compliance with the highest network security standards,” he said. “From a business perspective, its total cost of ownership had to be reasonable and a high service level agreements to meet our business operations requirements,” he added. “And finally from an IT user perspective, we prioritized manageability, administration and intuitiveness for the support team.”

After evaluating solutions from vendors including Huawei and Cisco, Guevarra and his team selected Aruba, as the vendor stood out for its ‘superior user experience, proven product quality, impressive local support, and ability to meet challenging business demands and expectations.

With the support of Aruba’s qualified local partner, AZHD’s IT team carefully designed and deployed the solution. This began with the installation of Aruba’s 2920 Series network back-bone switches to guarantee the speed, bandwidth and availability needed to support the wireless infrastructure. Over 200 Aruba AP-205, AP-103 and AP-105 Access Points (APs) were then installed across the hospital delivering Wi-Fi coverage throughout the premises. Finally, two Aruba mobility controllers were deployed to centralize management of this extensive AP network.

“The entire implementation was completed in under two weeks with no inconvenience to our patients. This really speaks volumes for the ease of installation of Aruba’s solutions,” stated Guevarra.

Improvements in staff productivity were noticed immediately following the deployment. The information gathering and preparation time from different departments was reduced by 50% for the staff who can now access the data where ever they are. By connecting to one of the 200+ wireless access points across the hospital, both healthcare and admin staff alike can securely access clinical and business related information as soon as they become available.

“One of the major benefits has been that this allows caregivers to access patient records at the bedside. It helps create a good patient experience when the physician is discussing a patient’s results with them on the spot, rather than deferring conversation to a later stage, extending the patient’s waiting time and causing them more anxiety.” explained Mr. Guevarra.

Seamless wireless connectivity is made to a wide range of people throughout the hospital’s premises depending on their roles and profiles - a feature made possible by the mobility controller. “We extend Wi-Fi access to our guests and community-based doctors, as well as patients and their families. The Internet is now part of Dubai’s Smart City initiative – it is everywhere from airports to cafes or restaurants. So now it is also part of our experience as a Smart Hospital,” said Guevarra. “Here, the stability and robustness of Aruba’s solutions takes added significance. Visitors typically carry up to four mobile devices which significantly increases our connection density,” he added.

On top of having to fulfill the requirements of the Hospital’s business and the technical and IT operations, Aruba’s Mobile First platform enabled the Al Zahra IT team to implement different initiatives such as wireless IP phones, user connectivity, guest internet, assurance of hospital-wide coverage, bedside access for the care team, email access, BYOD support and easy access to corporate systems and resources.

Commenting on the future, Mr. Guevarra says, “The next phase of our project will involve patients being provided with tablets at their bedsides to access a variety of services. They will have control over their entertainment or meal ordering, be able to communicate with their care team or to access their recent test results. Engaging with the patients in this care delivery model is something that we are planning for, and this wouldn’t be possible without Aruba’s pervasive coverage and management solutions.”

“We have chosen Aruba as our technology partner for the transformation of Al-Zahra to a Mobile-First Digital Workplace. If you consider the future of connected devices in healthcare, it will need support of high-speed wireless networks underpinned by a very stable and scalable backbone to cope with the volume of traffic,” he continued.

Commenting on the significance of the Aruba Mobile-First platform, Guevarra said, “It has played a big role in the growth of the hospital since its establishment in 2013, for both operational and clinical outcomes, whilst also enabling the desired patient experience. Today, Aruba continues to excel and enables us to develop a continuing roadmap of transformation towards further services and improved patient care,” he concluded.