Waikato District Health Board Case Study

Health network overhaul increases staff mobility

"The lack of precedent for this type of implementation in New Zealand reinforced the criticality of Waikato DHB and Datacom working together closely in defining requirements, defining design and meeting implementation critical success factors. The success of this project was due to both companies achieving this outcome.”
Waikato District Health Board PMO Manager, Christopher Goldsmith

Solution snapshot
Customer
Waikato District Health Board

Industry
Health

Business need
The Waikato District Health Board sought to upgrade its information and communications technology systems to boost productivity and reduce operating costs.

Solution product
Datacom designed, built, and provides support for Waikato District Health Board’s (DHB) Medical Grade Network.

• Overhauled network to boost performance and meet changing needs to create a state of the art network
• High-speed data transfer for images
• The wireless network allows for the tracking of people and assets – freeing clinicians from traditional desk based activities and allowing for roaming throughout the campus.
• The network is to enable bedside or point of care access improving clinical care for the people in the Waikato region.

Case study
Critical network presents challenge
The Waikato District Health Board has one of the largest non-education campus data networks in New Zealand numbering over 5,000 connected devices. The network encompasses Waikato Hospital Campus, Tokoroa, Taumarunui, Te Kuiti and Thames hospitals, the Caro Street Data Centre, and numerous community-based facilities.

This critical health network enables the DHB to undertake transactions electronically, and supports key patient management and clinical applications, as well as corporate applications, email, file, intranet, internet, Ministry of Health applications, and connections to the outside world.

Originally architected in 1999, the last major upgrade of the Waikato DHB network was in 2001. Since then, a number of key characteristics have changed, including connected devices doubling; dramatic changes to the use of the network, for example the introduction of network connected biomedical devices; and, the requirement to increase the speed of connected data across the network.

DHB seeks full refresh
The DHB network struggled to keep up with demand in the face of these changing expectations and, with an awareness of how they were impacting its staff and patients on a day-to-day basis, the district health board went to market.

The large health provider commissioned Datacom to design, build, and support a full network infrastructure refresh. Key decision criteria included: Datacom’s locality in the region; its capability and capacity; and Datacom’s proven track record of expertise within healthcare environments.

Datacom worked closely with DHB IS staff to ensure a successful deployment of the new infrastructure.
 

• The Medical Grade Network (MGN) has been architected with speed and resiliency in mind. The core and aggregation switching infrastructure boosted performance, enabling large clinical images to be sent across the network at high speed.
• A new security design has been applied to the MGN protecting access and usage, and enabling remote workers.
• Datacom have designed and successfully commissioned the Core and Aggregation network layers using the latest Cisco Virtual Switching System technology, and  have deployed in the region of 5000 network ports across the Waikato DHB campus.
• Datacom provides on-going 24x7x365 support of the new medical grade infrastructure
• Datacom was chosen for this project due to its capability and proven expertise in the healthcare sector.