According to a new research, two thirds of healthcare workers have poor cellular coverage at work
Small Cell Forum announced plans to work with the healthcare sector to support the deployment of small cells to address the risks of poor connectivity in the sector.
According to a research commissioned by SCF, two-thirds of healthcare workers face challenges in their day-to-day jobs because of poor cellular coverage.
The entity highlighted that small cells offer a secure and cost-effective way to provide robust, high-speed indoor voice and data coverage in hospitals and healthcare facilities.
SCF is currently working directly with healthcare organizations around the world to demonstrate how small cells can cost effectively achieve a high level of coverage throughout medical facilities.
“Healthcare is a sector where the lack of reliable mobile connectivity can quite literally be a matter of life or death,” said SCF Chair David Orloff. “Healthcare providers are increasingly using wireless connectivity to improve efficiency, increase access to clinical information as well as provide an enhanced patient experience. We are delighted to be working with stakeholders from across the healthcare industry in order to deliver on the vision of ubiquitous, high-quality cellular coverage.”
“There is a growing reliance on cellular for delivering services and improving patient care, across an ever-growing range of healthcare scenarios, making connectivity a critical issue,” said Kristan Kline, CTO at Kaiser Permanente, an American integrated managed care consortium, based in Oakland, Calif. “From automatically checking patients into their appointments when they arrive, informing them of the room to proceed to, to paying for their care all rely on a combination of cellular and Wi-Fi. Ensuring that our members have the coverage that they need, supporting multiple different cell phone carriers, and managing the cost of service are the key drivers for us.”
SCF said it has developed a number of case studies where mobile connectivity and full integration to converged networks with all professionals accessing data from mobile devices, can improve efficiency, reduce cost and enhance patient experience. Some of these case studies include:
-Mobile voice and data services for hospitals.
-Smart personal healthcare, such as fitness and self-monitoring of vital signs.
-Assisted living, such as monitoring or diagnosing vulnerable people in their homes and issuing alerts via mobile spectrum.
-Remote healthcare, such as diagnosis and advice via a smartphone, and in the future remote surgery.
-Mobile access to cloud resources, allowing doctors or nurses in surgeries to access patient records or use AI-enabled diagnostic tools.
