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The Challenge
Tulare District HealthCare System has provided first-rate medical services to Tulare County residents in central California for more than half a century. Today, the hospital prides itself on using cutting-edge technologies to treat approximately 65,000 central California residents at its two-building campus and nearby X-Ray clinic and outpatient lab.
Until recently, the 112-bed hospital relied on a shared Ethernet network from Cabletron and Allied Teleysen that buckled under the weight of new, advanced magnetic imaging and administrative applications. The legacy LAN often forced staff to wait 15 minutes for responses to simple commands, resulting in roughly $2.5 million a year in lost productivity and delayed patient service. Registering patients for admission, for instance, often took 20 minutes as staff struggled to access multiple computer screens to input data into Tulare's healthcare information systems (HIS) application.
In addition, the hospital's NEC PBX system lacked advanced communications features, including voice mail and automated attendants. The system's limited functionality frequently resulted in patients incurring busy signals and long delays in reaching scheduling, billing, and medical support staff.
To remedy this situation, Tulare sought a powerful, converged networking solution that would increase its productivity, lower its staffing costs, and accelerate patient care.
The Solution:
After considering Cisco, Hewlett Packard, and Enterasys solutions, Tulare followed the recommendations of its value added resellers and satisfied all of its communications objectives with the following 3Com® solution:
- 3Com® Switch 4007 provides enterprise-level performance and control at the network core, delivering Gigabit Ethernet links over fiber to a 3Com Gigabit Ethernet over copper switch and 3Com Fast Ethernet switches.
- 3Com SuperStack® 3 Switch 4924 affordably delivers 1000 megabits per second (Mbps) over existing copper wire to Tulare's servers.
- 3Com SuperStack 3 Switch 4400 multilayer switch automatically identifies and prioritizes voice and video traffic and delivers 10/100 Mbps connections to 200 desktops.
- 3Com 11 Mbps Wireless LAN Building-to-Building Bridge carries encrypted voice and data traffic from Tulare's two main buildings to its neighboring X-Ray and laboratory clinics.
- 3Com SuperStack 3 NBX® Networked Telephony Solution will be installed in Tulare's data center to distribute IP-based phone service over existing Ethernet cabling to approximately 600 users.
- 3Com Network Supervisor management application monitors and resolves network troubles via easy-to-use graphical displays.
Selected for its value and versatility over competitors' solutions, 3Com systems are dramatically improving Tulare's patient care while enabling the hospital to recoup millions of dollars in staff hours as well management costs.
With 3Com Gigabit Ethernet and multi-layer switches delivering the LAN up to 100-times faster than before, staff, who waited 15 minutes for network responses, now obtain them in seconds -- a productivity increase that saves the hospital approximately $2.5 million a year in man hours alone. Tulare is also saving thousands of dollars per year in IT service costs using 3Com's browser-based Network Supervisor, which provides a complete view of every switch, server, PC, and printer as well as their interconnect speeds. In addition, using the 3Com wireless bridge, Tulare will soon save another $8,400 per year by discarding leased T1 lines used to link its two main buildings and clinics, adding to the 3Com solution's extraordinary low total cost of ownership.
With the innovative 3Com LAN, Tulare doctors now conveniently view MRI, CT scan, and X-Ray images online for timely and accurate diagnoses. Moreover, the network-powered Health Management System's HIS program is improving nearly every aspect of hospital operations. Admissions staff register patients in just a few minutes. Medical staff quickly track diagnoses and treatment data, and support staff rapidly schedule tests and surgeries. Administrators also update medical records, manage payroll, and ensure the hospital stocks enough medical supplies.
The 3Com-driven Cerner Citations application also empowers laboratory staff to swiftly process doctors' test orders and deliver results back to them. The powerful LAN even enables home care nurses to upload their laptop-based patient treatment data onto the hospital network in a quarter of the time it once took.
Tulare will soon install an innovative networked telephony solution based on two 3Com SuperStack 3 NBX chassis and 250 10/100 NBX phones. The best and most practical alternative to spending $80,000 to upgrade its legacy PBX system, the feature-rich 3Com solution will also improve patient-staff communications.
"Our 3Com network has exponentially increased our productivity and improved our services while providing an exceptional ROI," said John Clark, Tulare's director of technology. "Using 3Com's networked telephony solution, we look forward to upgrading our communications even more and adding to our savings."
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