Memorial Medical Increases Patient, Staff & Visitor Experience With ION-E Technology
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Finding cell phone reception at Memorial Medical Center in Springfield shouldn’t be a problem any more. On Sept. 13, the hospital released a statement saying Farmington Hills, Mich.-based RF Connect was hired to design, install and commission the hospital’s indoor cellular coverage and capacity.
“Working with partners like RF Connect provides great opportunities to showcase cutting-edge technologies like the ION-E,” said Rick Arsenault, Anixter’s SVP global sales for wireless in a statement.
RF Connect provides wireless services that help design, optimize and manage the speed and performance of commercial wireless networks. By improving the reliability of a network, RF Connect can provide performance reports and respond to issues with service or equipment. With the new technology, patients and visitors will benefit by being able to connect and stay up-to-date on loved ones.
The wireless communication company has experience working on commercial health care facilities like Beaumont Health located in Royal Oak, Mich.; University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center located in Houston, Texas; and Baptist Memorial Health Care located in Memphis, Tenn.
Prior to the installation of an ION-E system at Memorial Medical Health, cell phone service was inconsistent or unavailable on a number of floors, stairwells, patient exam rooms and certain hallways. Besides cell phone service, connectivity problems impacted tablets used by doctors and nurses to fill out patient paperwork, automated medical records systems and advanced imaging technology, according to a statement from RF Connect.
The ION-E system, designed by Hickory, N.C.-based CommScope and RF Connect improves the connection speed and allows Memorial Medical Center to expand its cellular network making it easier for doctors, nurses, patients and visitors to communicate without interruption or poor performance. Transferring information and accessing patient records was also made easier by improving the connectivity of Memorial Medical Center’s wireless network.
“The ION-E platform was created specifically for the enterprise building market, with a focus on making it easier for IT people to deploy wireless services without the complexity of traditional radio frequency technologies commonly used in mobility,” said Mike Shumate, vice president of distributed coverage and capacity solutions at CommScope in a statement.
During the project, RF Connect used ION-E to help distribute wireless signals throughout an administrative building located on the medical center campus. ION-E is a wireless infrastructure system designed around IT-based structured cabling architecture. RF Connect worked closely with Denver-based Anixter during product selection and delivery logistics to make the process seamless, according to a statement from RF Connect.
“The ION-E system proved to be everything it was promoted as,” said RF Connect Executive Vice President Jeff Hipchen in a statement. “We see this solution as a true game-changer in the Distributed Antenna System industry.”