5G Improves Patient and Staff Experience at NGHS

5G means much more to healthcare than just faster cellular speeds. 5G is a technology that can help improve both patient and staff experience WITHOUT the need for extensive training or changes to workflows. If implemented smartly, 5G also represents a rare opportunity to future-proof healthcare facilities.

To find out more about 5G and how it can be successfully deployed in healthcare, the team at Healthcare IT Today did a deep dive into this topic with:

  • Stuart Samples, Chief Technology Officer at Northeast Georgia Health System (NGHS);
  • Robert Johnson, Communications Manager at NGHS; and
  • Bill Cune, Vice President at Corning Optical Communications (Corning)

Corning is one of the world’s largest suppliers of fiber optic communication technologies – a key component to 5G infrastructure and telecommunications in general.

NGHS is a large not-for-profit health system with four hospital campuses – NGMC Gainesville, NGMC Braselton, NGMC Barrow, and NGMC Lumpkin. Together they have over 700 beds and more than 1,200 medical staff serving the people of northeast Georgia. The team at NGHS has invested in the infrastructure to make 5G (and WiFi) broadly available on their campuses for the benefit of patients, caregivers, visitors, and staff.

Together with Samples, Johnson, and Cune, we explored:

  • The impact 5G can have on patient and staff experience;
  • Why organization don’t have to choose between WiFi or Cellular;
  • How a Fiber-to-the-Edge architecture can help future-proof a healthcare organization

Learn more about 5G in Healthcare by downloading this e-book, co-authored by Healthcare IT Today: 4 Reasons Why 5G and Healthcare Make Sense

What is 5G?

Fifth-generation wireless (5G) is the next iteration of cellular technology. It is faster, more responsive, and able to handle more connected devices than existing 4G LTE networks which are widely deployed today.

When 5G is fully deployed, patients will be able to connect their at-home monitoring devices to the cellular network which will send data near-instantaneously back to their care team. No more complex WiFi setups for remote patient monitoring!

If properly deployed on hospital campuses, 5G will make cellular signals available in previously hard-to-reach places like underground parking lots and open green spaces. According to Cune, healthcare organizations can achieve this by investing in networking infrastructure that is capable of carrying the necessary signals to the end-points where it is needed.

“Fiber optic cables have near infinite capacity,” said Cune. “Fiber used to be what you ran to the neighborhood, but now as costs have come down, it’s affordable and practical to run fiber right to the floor of the building. From there you can take that capacity and use it for cellular signals, WiFi, and other communications.”

This is the approach that NGHS took with their network infrastructure. They partnered with Corning to implement a fiber-to-the-edge (FTTE) solution for their facilities.

Improving Patient and Staff Experience with 5G

“Two years ago, we embarked on a Mobility Project here at NGHS,” shared Johnson. “We needed to bulletproof our network infrastructure. We also wanted to add cellular to our environment so that physicians, nurses, patients, and their visitors can bring their own devices to our campuses and do all the things they need to do.”

“The Mobility Project allowed us to improve our messaging, alert, and alarm workflows,” continued Samples. “This in turn led to improvements in the work environment which had a positive impact on our staff. We also understood the need for patients to remain connected while they were on our campuses – to stay connected with loved ones, to do work, or to use the various tools or apps that are part of their care. A high capacity, fast, and reliable network was absolutely required.”

With Corning’s solution, NGHS facilities now have a fiber optic cable running to each place where connectivity is needed. That single cable, along with a special Corning endpoint device, means NGHS did not have to choose between WiFi and cellular, they could have the best of both. With strong 5G and WiFi signals now blanketing NGHS facilities, patients and staff can use their own devices wherever and whenever they wish.

A key driver of patient experience is the ability for patients to remain connected to family and friends, their physicians and medical staff, and to information they need to make good healthcare decisions. People want to remain connected to the outside world. It doesn’t matter if they are waiting for their appointment, visiting a loved one, recovering from a procedure, or participating in a program.

Improving patient experience and medical outcomes begins with a wireless-first design where 5G is delivered with a FTTE architecture. A 5G network that is supported by a high-capacity fiber backbone provides the sub-1 millisecond latency that can deliver life-saving services for patients while keeping them connected to family and friends.

Future-Proofing Healthcare Facilities with 5G

In addition to the improvements to patient and staff experience, NGHS is also benefiting in another way from their investment with their implementation of Corning’s solution and their FTTE approach.

“The telecommunications and network team that got this work done, put a tremendous amount of time and effort into doing it right,” explained Samples. “They built it modular so that we can grow and expand. It prevents obsolescence.”

“Fiber will never run out of bandwidth,” added Cune. “It can support all current applications and any high bandwidth applications in the future. With a FTTE approach, the endpoint is going to be only 30ft away from anything you ever need to connect. This means you will never have to rip out cables just to keep up with the latest technologies. That’s a huge capital and operating expense savings.”

In other words, NGHS has effective future-proofed their network infrastructure with their fiber backbone.

Learn more about Corning and their solutions at: https://www.corning.com/in-building-networks/worldwide/en/home.html

Learn more about NGHS at: https://www.nghs.com/

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Corning is a sponsor of Healthcare Scene.

About the author

Colin Hung

Colin Hung is the co-founder of the #hcldr (healthcare leadership) tweetchat one of the most popular and active healthcare social media communities on Twitter. Colin speaks, tweets and blogs regularly about healthcare, technology, marketing and leadership. He is currently an independent marketing consultant working with leading healthIT companies. Colin is a member of #TheWalkingGallery. His Twitter handle is: @Colin_Hung.

   

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