Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital NHS Foundation Trust now offer free to use Public WiFi in all areas of the Trust. This service without question enhances the hospital experience for day patients, in patients, visitors and staff too.
WiFi SPARK have also supplied the Trust with pre configured, filtered, safe and secure Laptops to loan to patients.
Click here to download the Liverpool Heart and Chest NHS Foundation Trust mini case study
Company Profile
Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital NHS Foundation Trust was formed in April 1991, as part of the first wave of NHS Trusts. Since that time the Trust has developed into one of the largest specialist heart and chest hospitals in the U.K. establishing itself along the way as a renowned provider of cardiothoracic services.
The Trust’s reputation continues to gain prominence nationally enabling it to attract and retain a wide range of experienced and highly skilled professional staff. Currently over 1,300 staff are employed at the hospital.
Business Situation
Liverpool Heart and Chest NHS foundation Trust’s network infrastructure is serviced and maintained by North Mersey Health Informatics Services. The hospital made their initial enquiry to North Mersey HIS for patient internet access on private wards across their site. WiFi SPARK was approached based on the successful implementation of wired and wireless broadband services for medical students at Aintree University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. This successful launch was in the doctor’s accommodation and the work completed and supported by WiFi SPARK on behalf of North Mersey HIS.
It soon became apparent that there was a requirement not only for the availability of safe and secure PC’s for patients but also safe and secure Trust wide public WiFi using the existing clinical infrastructure, allowing patients to bring onto site their own laptops, iphones, pda’s blackberry’s, ipads etc.
Solution
WiFi SPARK installed the SPARK server at North Mersey HIS’s Control Centre in Liverpool and provided the Trust with pre configured, filtered, safe and secure Dell note books. These notebooks allowed the patient to get instant internet access. Instant internet access was made possible by associating the unique hardware identity code with the network. This resulted in that particular piece of hardware retaining consistent internet access at all times.
The Trust has over 200 clinical Access Points over which we broadcast a public SSID. Anyone on site with a wireless device can now acquire free to use internet access.
Functionality
Patients on private wards now have the option of accessing the Internet directly via a Trust owned laptop or by using their own personal device.
Any individual anywhere within the Trust can browse the internet for free on their own wireless device. The user is directed to the Trust’s welcome page and prompted to sign in and by doing so accepts the Terms and Conditions of internet usage. The user is then prompted to identify themselves after which they are able to browse the web, send emails or even watch streaming video, all in a filtered and controlled environment.
Click here to download the Liverpool Heart and Chest NHS Foundation Trust mini case study
