In its quest to become the health capital of the , The Medical City is aiming to push the further modernization of the hospital complex by deploying data networking connectivity, creating a high-level operational efficiency for providing critical patient care.
With reliability and security as top considerations, Dr. Alfredo Bengzon, The Medical City?s president and CEO made the decision to tap Nortel to provide the hospital?s network core. Consulting with Trends and Technologies, a local authorized reseller of Nortel, The Medical City deployed Nortel?s Gigabit Ethernet LAN solution for optimum networking connectivity.
The challenges posed by The Medical City to Nortel and Trends and Technologies are to build a data infrastructure that would enable the hospital?s existing SHAMAN (Strategic Hospital and Medication Automation Network) to work seamlessly with hospital operations and to help realize the immediate access to digital imaging such as MRIs, CT scans, and X-rays.
Nortel?s technology provides Gigabit Ethernet connectivity to the hospital. The Medical City deployed two Nortel Ethernet Routing Switch 8600s (formerly known as Passport 8600 Routing Switches) at its network core, providing a fully redundant solution interconnected by Nortel SMLT (split multi-link trunking) technology for sub-second fail over. The Ethernet Routing Switch delivers a complete, cost-effective solution for Gigabit Ethernet connectivity over fiber or copper media. It provides ease of use, superior performance, availability, and scalability within a single platform capable of supporting voice, video, and data.
The Gigabit Ethernet LAN solution includes Nortel Enterprise Switch Manager (formerly Nortel Optivity Switch Manager) designed to help reduce administration costs and time to deploy network devices by providing a ?point and click? GUI to configure and monitor network systems remotely or on-site.
Nortel delivers high-density desktop connectivity to meet the hospital?s quality of service (QoS) requirements for server response times and priority applications. The Medical City installed over 80 Nortel Ethernet 470-24Ts (formerly known as Baystack 470-24T edge switches) at key hospital tower locations.
With the Nortel data networking solution in place, all stakeholders at The Medical City benefit from a fully integrated hospital information system. Specific benefits include patients? easy access to laboratory results through satellite laboratories within the hospital, digitized (filmless) records from X-rays, the accessibility of MRIs and CT scans to doctors in every nurse station, and the easy exchange of medical information from different departments of the hospital.
Hasan Fard, chairman and CEO of Trends and Technologies, said that his company and The Medical City will continue to collaborate in the future. Some of the projects include wireless Internet connectivity in hospital rooms, centralized patient information with the five satellite clinics in Metro Manila, and medical conferencing to colleagues in the Philippines. ?We still have a lot of plans with the partnership with The Medical City. We have to constantly prove to them that we are worthy of the trust they have bestowed upon us. We have to prove to them that they made the right choice in choosing us,? said Fard.
To show Nortel and Trends and Technologies? commitment to the project, the companies will combine their forces to provide 24/7 technical response and preventive maintenance to The Medical City. The two companies will also ensure availability of replacement.