Albert Einstein Hospital Implements Innovative Services with Cisco Technology

Cisco Integrated Medical-Grade Network Helps Brazilian Hospital Improve Services and Reduce Operational Costs.

São Paulo, Brazil. – Cisco today announced the deployment of an Integrated Medical-Grade Network at the Albert Einstein Israeli Hospital (HIAE) in Sao Paulo city. The Hospital is recognized in Latin America for pioneering the innovative use of technology to streamline business processes and deliver value to its patients. HIAE has selected Cisco’s health information technology architecture to improve health service delivery and to reduce operational costs. The “Medical-Grade” network connects the hospital´s workers to essential information and services - anytime, anywhere - and has enabled the hospital to interconnect its seven facilities in São Paulo.

HIAE estimates an increase of 30 to 40% in the number of beds it will house by 2011 and plans to build new facilities, create a day clinic and provide extra ambulatory services. Cisco’s solution aims to meet the hospital’s growth requirements while delivering security, interoperability, availability and productivity. Cisco’s healthcare architecture also enables better support for patients and clinical staff, allowing quick and easy information exchange in areas such as patient diagnostics, clinical stories and medical recommendations. The system could also potentially be extended to partners and external agencies in the future.
Key Facts/Highlights:

* The hospital has consolidated four different networks for voice, data, vital sign monitoring and the Picture Archiving and Communications System (PACS), combining all communication services into a single, integrated network infrastructure using Cisco’s technology.
* As a result, HIAE has introduced new applications that cover different work methods while reducing costs.
* HIAE migrated to Cisco Information Security solutions and deployed firewall features for perimeter security, VPN services for remote access and IPS to assist in intruder prevention. These solutions have been integrated to the network, increasing reliability and security for doctors and patients.
* The local networks (LAN) and wide area networks (WAN) use Cisco technology to provide highly-reliable high performance access to voice, data and PACS services, whether for fixed or wireless connections.
* Cisco Catalyst switches also provided scalability and flexibility in the main hospital´s data center network. Servers and other IT systems such as PACS, which were previously distributed across the hospital’s seven facilities, have now been centralized into a single data center for the first time.
* Instead of having separate systems for each specialty, the authorized employees can now see any image in the PACS system from any location in the hospital or its remote units, saving significant time and helping improve service to patients, while also enabling doctors to access data securely and make quicker decisions.
* The members of the HIAE clinical staff are continually on the move, and many keep in touch with co-workers through mobile phones. Doctors and nurses are now starting to use wireless IP phones connected to Cisco’s platform, enabling easier, more cost-effective communication using four digit extensions.
* The hospital also plans to replace all pagers with IP phones, providing clinical staff with a more versatile device that is capable of bilateral communication, reducing response times and communication costs.
* The new Cisco infrastructure provides the hospital with a platform on which several innovative applications are set to be introduced. One of these applications allows HIAE to manage and locate its medical equipment more efficiently, using radio frequency identification (RFID) tags and wireless communication network.

Supporting Quotes:

* Sérgio Arai, chief information officer (CIO) of Albert Einstein Hospital

“We wanted to develop applications integrating voice and data, and we were interested in implementing some of these applications on IP phones, using the devices like small PCs. This would enable innovative communication, both for the staff and for patients, resulting in improvements in the service standards and patient satisfaction. After a lot of consideration we decided that the Cisco platform was the best one available. We also found out that we shared Cisco’s view - the idea of a network in which all services are integrated in order to provide more intelligence and broader functionality.”

* Heitor Gottberg, executive manager for Healthcare at Cisco

“The Albert Einstein hospital has once again shown its pioneering spirit as an innovative medical institution, with a strategic view of the intelligent application of technology to improve its operations and services. The collaboration with this hospital has allowed Cisco to expand its expertise and professionalization in healthcare IT management to answer the specific demands for performance, security and functionality in the healthcare area.”