Ramsay: Wellness Essentials
Westmead Private Goes Wireless
Patients at Westmead Private Hospital can now enjoy wireless internet access on demand during their admission after wireless technology was recently installed throughout the hospital.
Westmead Private is offering patients wireless internet access at a very competitive rate during their stay and the take-up rate since installing the technology has been extremely high.
Westmead Private Hospital CEO Carol Bryant said the deployment of Colubris WLAN equipment in Westmead Private for patients was part of the hospital’s commitment to upgrade non-clinical services and facilities in line with the increasing expectations of patients.
“We already had wireless internet access for our doctors in theatre but we had so much feedback from patients that they wanted internet access whilst they were recovering in our hospital, that we thought the investment in this technology was well worthwhile,” Ms Bryant said.
“We believe that providing patients with wifi access will be looked on favourably particularly when patients want to continue working during their treatment or recovery.”
It is expected that there will be demand particularly in areas such as maternity and day chemotherapy as well as for long stay patients. However early indications have demonstrated that patients from a wide range of specialties are using the service.
“Since the installation of wireless to the hospital the take-up rate by patients right across the hospital has been extremely high.”
For those patients who do not bring their own laptops to hospital to access the wifi networks, Westmead Private Hospital has a number of internet kiosks throughout the hospital with 24 hour access for patients and visitors to the hospital.
The investment in wireless technology also assists specialists who will be able to access information in relation to the care of their patients from anywhere within the hospital. This access significantly increases practitioner efficiency and has been welcomed by specialists in Westmead Private Hospital.
In the future, Westmead Private will also be able to explore its ability to leverage wireless infrastructure to achieve the substantial benefits that can be gained using wireless voice and messaging, staff roaming applications, real time location tracking of equipment and patient internet access among other applications.
Ramsay Health Care, owners of Westmead Private Hospital, have commenced a $1 million mass deployment of Colubris WLAN equipment throughout all of the Company’s facilities to enable wireless computing for both patients and medical practitioners. The rollout will be completed by December 2009.
