13 Sep Memphis hospital group installing Johnson Controls wireless infrastructure
Baptist Memorial Health Care in Memphis, Tenn., will install a wireless distribution infrastructure at five of its largest hospitals and the organization’s corporate office under a $6 million agreement with Glendale, Wis.-based Johnson Controls.
The wireless distribution system will provide wireless coverage throughout Baptist’s six locations by means of a single broadband infrastructure. The system, which will be installed in the next 12 months, will support the delivery of voice and data systems — such as personal communications systems/cellular carriers, local area networks, two-way radios, digital paging systems, handheld clinical devices and medical telemetry — throughout each location. Also, the wireless system will eliminate the need for separate, multiple wireless networks and can easily support changes or the addition of future applications.
The wireless infrastructure will support the integrated electronic clinical information system Baptist is installing at Baptist Memorial Hospital-Memphis, Baptist Memorial Hospital for Women, Baptist Memorial Hospital-DeSoto, Baptist Memorial Restorative Care Hospital, Baptist Memorial Hospital-North Mississippi and Baptist Memorial Hospital-Golden Triangle.
The multiyear project, which began implementation in July, will move Baptist closer to a paperless environment, with electronic bedside patient charting and documentation and automated delivery systems.