Download PDF
Visibility Extended to Remote Medical Buildings for Protecting Health Care Services
Technology Category
- Application Infrastructure & Middleware - API Integration & Management
- Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Data Exchange & Integration
- Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Middleware, SDKs & Libraries
Applicable Industries
- Healthcare & Hospitals
Applicable Functions
- Maintenance
- Quality Assurance
Use Cases
- Remote Asset Management
- Remote Collaboration
- Remote Patient Monitoring
Services
- Cloud Planning, Design & Implementation Services
- Data Science Services
- System Integration
The Challenge
The healthcare organization was undergoing a strategic building initiative that would result in an expansion of their main hospital campus, as well as the addition of patient and research facilities staffed by more than 5,000 doctors, nurses, research associates, scientists, and essential staff. The organization heavily relies on their network and application resources for swift access to patient, diagnostic, and research information, as well as voice and video communications throughout their sprawling state-wide environment. A steady, well-planned IT strategy to gain benefits from digital transformation has helped them achieve research milestones and patient treatment successes. However, maintaining the health, availability, and performance of these services is essential to the healthcare which was a primary driver behind the broad implementation of NETSCOUT’s nGeniusONE® Service Assurance solution for monitoring and troubleshooting issues enterprise-wide.
About The Customer
The customer is a healthcare organization that was founded more than a century ago. It is a national leader in delivering patient care, as well as advancing research and treatment protocols in several critical specialty areas. The organization is a pioneer in patient care, research, and education in life-threatening illnesses, including diabetes and cancer, and is experiencing tremendous growth. A strategic building initiative will result in an expansion of their main hospital campus, as well as the addition of patient and research facilities staffed by more than 5,000 doctors, nurses, research associates, scientists, and essential staff. The organization heavily relies on their network and application resources for swift access to patient, diagnostic, and research information, as well as voice and video communications throughout their sprawling state-wide environment.
The Solution
The solution involved a collaborative effort supported by senior leadership at the healthcare organization, the in-house security team, and the outsource organization for NetOps. All parties involved were intimately familiar with the challenges they faced with the expansion of their facilities and patient reach. Speed, agility, and cost-controls were essential to make this visibility project a success. The IT team added to their nGeniusONE deployment to meet the health care’s needs. They implemented InfiniStreamNG 2700 series certified software appliances with support for either 1GB or 10GB for packet-based, real-time, smart edge monitoring of application activity in the new medical, research, and administrative buildings, including the newly added Microsoft Office 365 and Microsoft Teams services. They also used nGenius Packet Flow Switches 5000 series certified software appliances to collect, distribute, and aggregate network traffic from various links in the new buildings to the ISNG appliances, as well as other cybersecurity tools.
Operational Impact
Quantitative Benefit
Related Case Studies.
Case Study
Hospital Inventory Management
The hospital supply chain team is responsible for ensuring that the right medical supplies are readily available to clinicians when and where needed, and to do so in the most efficient manner possible. However, many of the systems and processes in use at the cancer center for supply chain management were not best suited to support these goals. Barcoding technology, a commonly used method for inventory management of medical supplies, is labor intensive, time consuming, does not provide real-time visibility into inventory levels and can be prone to error. Consequently, the lack of accurate and real-time visibility into inventory levels across multiple supply rooms in multiple hospital facilities creates additional inefficiency in the system causing over-ordering, hoarding, and wasted supplies. Other sources of waste and cost were also identified as candidates for improvement. Existing systems and processes did not provide adequate security for high-cost inventory within the hospital, which was another driver of cost. A lack of visibility into expiration dates for supplies resulted in supplies being wasted due to past expiry dates. Storage of supplies was also a key consideration given the location of the cancer center’s facilities in a dense urban setting, where space is always at a premium. In order to address the challenges outlined above, the hospital sought a solution that would provide real-time inventory information with high levels of accuracy, reduce the level of manual effort required and enable data driven decision making to ensure that the right supplies were readily available to clinicians in the right location at the right time.
Case Study
Gas Pipeline Monitoring System for Hospitals
This system integrator focuses on providing centralized gas pipeline monitoring systems for hospitals. The service they provide makes it possible for hospitals to reduce both maintenance and labor costs. Since hospitals may not have an existing network suitable for this type of system, GPRS communication provides an easy and ready-to-use solution for remote, distributed monitoring systems System Requirements - GPRS communication - Seamless connection with SCADA software - Simple, front-end control capability - Expandable I/O channels - Combine AI, DI, and DO channels
Case Study
Driving Digital Transformations for Vitro Diagnostic Medical Devices
Diagnostic devices play a vital role in helping to improve healthcare delivery. In fact, an estimated 60 percent of the world’s medical decisions are made with support from in vitrodiagnostics (IVD) solutions, such as those provided by Roche Diagnostics, an industry leader. As the demand for medical diagnostic services grows rapidly in hospitals and clinics across China, so does the market for IVD solutions. In addition, the typically high cost of these diagnostic devices means that comprehensive post-sales services are needed. Wanteed to improve three portions of thr IVD:1. Remotely monitor and manage IVD devices as fixed assets.2. Optimizing device availability with predictive maintenance.3. Recommending the best IVD solution for a customer’s needs.
Case Study
HaemoCloud Global Blood Management System
1) Deliver a connected digital product system to protect and increase the differentiated value of Haemonetics blood and plasma solutions. 2) Improve patient outcomes by increasing the efficiency of blood supply flows. 3) Navigate and satisfy a complex web of global regulatory compliance requirements. 4) Reduce costly and labor-intensive maintenance procedures.
Case Study
Harnessing real-time data to give a holistic picture of patient health
Every day, vast quantities of data are collected about patients as they pass through health service organizations—from operational data such as treatment history and medications to physiological data captured by medical devices. The insights hidden within this treasure trove of data can be used to support more personalized treatments, more accurate diagnosis and more advanced preparative care. But since the information is generated faster than most organizations can consume it, unlocking the power of this big data can be a struggle. This type of predictive approach not only improves patient care—it also helps to reduce costs, because in the healthcare industry, prevention is almost always more cost-effective than treatment. However, collecting, analyzing and presenting these data-streams in a way that clinicians can easily understand can pose a significant technical challenge.