“The AirWave Management Platform software was not the most inexpensive solution we looked at, but it was clearly the best value... It gave us a way to help one person do the work of ten.” - Community Healthcare

In the healthcare environment, Wi-Fi networks can literally save lives. Doctors can input vital information directly to a patient's records via a handheld device from the bedside, and nurses can use barcode scanners to ensure proper administration of pharmaceuticals. Doctors and nurses can view data from monitors and other WiFi-enabled medical equipment remotely, making better and faster decisions about patient care.

For these and hundreds of other reasons, most major hospitals and leading healthcare providers are rapidly implementing Wi-Fi networks throughout their facilities. The AirWave Wireless Management Suite is ideally suited to the healthcare environment, and is used to manage wireless networks in leading organizations such as the Mayo Clinic, UCSF Medical Center, Christiana Care, and others.

Centralized monitoring and network control
A large hospital may actually consist of multiple large buildings – and may require thousands of wireless access points to provide the wall-to-wall coverage required by some healthcare applications. Larger healthcare providers that operate multiple facilities may need to support vast wireless LANs with tens of thousands of devices and users. As the wireless networks extend their reach into all corners of the healthcare environment, the small IT staff in the NOC cannot always go onsite to diagnose problems – and, in fact, may be thousands of miles away. AirWave's remote monitoring and configuration capabilities allow problems to be diagnosed and addressed quickly -- without having to dispatch a technician. 

Ease of use for an overworked IT staff
Compared to their peers in the corporate world, the healthcare IT organization is often stretched extremely thin. A small, overworked IT staff is often responsible for managing a large 24x7 network. IT simply does not have time for weeks of training on management tools. They need solutions that are intuitive and easy to use from Day One. AirWave's web-based user interface is designed for usability - putting the critical information at your fingertips at all times.

Specific monitoring views and administrative privileges for each member of the IT staff
In a large healthcare organization, literally dozens of IT staff members from different teams need to use the wireless management solution. Each has a different role -- and should be permitted to view different information. The helpdesk staff supporting nurse’s medical applications should have access to monitoring screens to verify that the wireless network is performing the way it should – but should not be permitted to change network security settings or operational parameters. AirWave's flexible role-based administrative access solution allows you to tailor each individual's level of access for his or her specific role in your organization.

Detailed user monitoring and diagnostics to enable the helpdesk to resolve problems fast           
When a doctor or nurse calls to report a problem with the wireless network, the helpdesk needs to be able to respond... fast. With AirWave, the helpdesk staff can immediately locate the user on the network -- by username -- determine where the user is connected, assess RF conditions and network performance in the area, and take any steps required to address the problem. As a result, trouble ticket resolution time can be reduced by up to 75%!

Automated compliance audits for HIPAA and other regulatory requirements
Every CIO in the healthcare industry knows about HIPAA and the lengths that healthcare providers must go to ensure that patient data is protected – and is probably also concerned that wireless could be a point of vulnerability. At the same time, the need for wireless networks to support today’s mission-critical mobile healthcare applications is also clear.

To meet the internal and external security requirements, today’s  healthcare providers must maintain extremely tight controls over the configuration of their network infrastructure. AirWave's automated compliance audit feature compares the configuration of every device on your network to your policy settings -- and generates a high-priority alert whenever a variance is detected. You can even instruct the software to automatically correct the settings as soon as the violation is detected.

Capacity planning and reporting     
As healthcare providers plan to support new mobile applications like voice, the IT organization needs to know whether their existing wireless network can handle the load – and where they might need to upgrade the infrastructure. The AirWave Wireless Management Suite provides a full set of customizable reports, so you can quickly locate potential trouble spots and take proactive steps to ensure your network is always ready for your users and your new applications.

Hardware lifecycle management to reduce capital costs  
Large providers make take many years to fully deploy a wireless network -- from initial test networks until wireless has reached every corner of the facility. In this time, wireless hardware vendors may have moved through several product generations. It is typically not possible or affordable for healthcare providers to update their entire infrastructure every time new technologies are introduced or whenever their vendors’ product lines evolve. In the real world, IT always has to manage multiple generations of network infrastructure, carefully weighing capital costs when determining hardware lifecycles. AirWave provides robust support for both state-of-the-art current generation products as well as legacy support dating back to the earliest days of Wi-Fi -- allowing providers to extend the life of their hardware infrastructure by years.

Scalability to manage large-scale wireless networks
A large mutlti-facility healthcare provider network can easily have 10,000+ wireless access points and controllers on its network, with tens of thousands of wireless users, so the scalability of the management solution is a critical consideration. AirWave offers multiple versions of the AirWave Wireless Management Suite and provides a seamless upgrade path as your network expands. And with the AirWave Master Console, no matter how big the wireless network grows, you still have one integrated console for monitoring and management.

Automated rogue detection – no matter where the rogues are located.  
No healthcare provider can tolerate rogue access points. Yet, it is extremely difficult to police the network to ensure that your employees aren’t connecting APs without your knowledge or permission. IDS systems with hardware sensors may take years to deploy in thousands of locations. AirWave's RAPIDS module, with wired network scanning, makes it easy to detect rogues anywhere on the network without proprietary sensors.

Performance monitoring for wireless VOIP and other mobile applications
Healthcare providers have been the leading adopters of wireless VOIP solutions, using handsets and 'push-to-talk' badges to replace mobile phones and overhead paging systems. To support voice applications, however, requires extremely high levels of network perfomance and reliablity. AirWave's historical performance reports and real-time monitoring screens allow you to see exactly how the network is performing and to identify any trouble spots before users are affected. You can even monitor 802.11e statistics and view data by VLAN to see exactly how your voice network is performing and how heavily it is being used.

Tracking the location of every device and user on your network to eliminate lost and stolen devices – and improve network performance
Healthcare providers can lose millions of dollars worth of badges, laptops, medical equipment, scanners and other wireless devices every year. AirWave’s VisualRF module and QuickView screens allow you to see exactly where any devices connected to your wireless network are located – and to determine where they were last connected if they aren’t currently on the wireless network. You can even configure AMP to generate a high priority alert if any device that you have marked as lost ever reappears on your network.

The VisualRF mapping and location module also makes it dramatically easier for your helpdesk to support end users – allowing them to quickly determine where users are located, assess what is happening in the area, and take whatever corrective actions are necessary.

Better yet, these capabilities are included in the AirWave Wireless Management Suite, without requiring you to buy a costly location appliance or pay additional per-AP fees.