Challenge: To provide a public WiFi solution to the hospitals' existing wireless infrastructure without any disruption to the existing network.
Solution: Install a SPARK gateway on to the network which provides a managed public WiFi service throughout the two hospitals.
Organisation Profile
Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust provides a range of medical services to approximately 420,000 people living across southwest London and North East Surrey. In addition, they provide more specialist services, in particular renal and neonatal intensive care, to a wider area, covering parts of Sussex and Hampshire.
The Trust employs approximately 4,800 staff across its hospitals and is supported by over 440 volunteers.
Business Situation
The Trust already have WiFi throughout 2 hospitals for clinical use only. The Trust required a managed WiFi solution for its patients with minimal outlay and no on site disruption. It was critical that the system would compliment their current patient bedside services, be reliable and simple for the end user to operate using their personal devices bought into the hospital from home.
Solution
We installed one SPARK Gateway at St Helier Hospital to cover two trust hospitals. The system offered all our usual features such as content filtering, usage statistics, bandwidth control and a unique branded welcome page.
We used the Trust’s existing wireless access points but created a separate VLAN and public SSID called WiFiSPARK HotSpot for the patients to use.
The rest of the network did not require any amendments which ensured no downtime was experienced by the Trust when implementing our service.
As with all our customers, the trust will benefit from our 24/7 support service so in the event that a customer is unable to gain access to the internet, one of our support staff will be able to remotely talk them through using the system.
All our hardware is monitored remotely for 365 days of the year. So in the unlikely event that there is a problem, we can troubleshoot the issue before the customer is made aware.
Functionality
Patients connect with their wireless device such as a laptop to the wireless network called WiFiSPARK HotSpot. They then launch their browser which will redirect them to the Trust branded welcome page. From this page, they are able to visit a number of free sites, buy time using a credit/debit card, or log in if they are an existing user. The process is very easy but in the event that the customer requires any assistance we also provide a 24/7 helpdesk. This ensures that WiFi SPARK provide the support for the WiFi, leaving the hospital staff to do their job.
Conclusion
From the moment the WiFi service was installed it has been very popular with patients, even before the service was promoted! The service compliments existing bedside services, enhances the patient hospital experience whilst generating an additional revenue stream for the Trust.
