Spanish Hospital deploys wireless tracking
- 7 March 2008
Spain’s AT4 wireless has completed a project in Southern Spain to allow wireless tracking of nursing staff, improvement staff safety and tracking of equipment at the Hospital Alta Resolucion (Benalmadena).
Ekahau, a Finnish specialist in Wi-Fi-based Real Time Location Systems (RTLS), partnered with wireless firm AT4 to deliver the combined asset and staff tracking system which operates across an advanced Wi-Fi network. The system allows staff, and valuable portable medical equipment, to be tracked across the hospital campus and includes a staff alarm facility.
Hospital Alta Resolucion, which was recently built to complement the services of a larger neighbouring public hospital in Marbella on the Costa del Sol, features some of the latest technological solutions, including an advanced Wi-Fi network from Cisco Systems.
Malaga-based AT4 wireless was commissioned to install its integrated Radio Frequency Identification Device (RFID) solution and also provide a combined tracking solution for staff and equipment.
To meet the requirement it selected the Ekahau as its partner RTLS solution, using its positioning Engine and tags, across the hospital campus.
Staff are now required to carry wireless tags with a panic button, which, when pressed, sends an alarm SMS direct to the hospital’s security centre prompting immediate response direct to the scene of the emergency.
"After some smaller pilot deployments, this was our first larger scale project with Ekahau and it went very well," said Juan Gonzalez, RTLS project leader of the Engineering and Solutions Division at AT4 wireless. "Ekahau staff provided excellent support and training, as well as help during the implementation phase."
Gonzalez continued that the regional health authority was now evaluating the progress of the Ekahau implementation at Benalmadena with possible expansion later to its larger hospital site in Marbella.
"This hospital deployment is a very good example of the Ekahau advantage, to be able to deploy a multi-purpose RTLS system over an existing enterprise Wi-Fi network, with a short deployment time and without any additional infrastructure installations," said Jarmo Ikonen, Ekahau’s director of Sales.
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