Healthcare is constantly innovating, and many of the recent innovations are tied to technology. Hospitals are shifting to medical record software systems like Epic® in order to make medical record keeping paperless and more efficient. This shift requires more capacity in the infrastructure to meet the increasing demand from additional systems. IT departments in healthcare institutions monitor the demands on their communication infrastructure to ensure it can keep up with current needs and scale in the future as demand increases.
Many hospitals and healthcare organizations are asking if their fiber backbones are still up to the task of supporting the increasing demands being placed on them by the rapid introduction of more systems that require bandwidth. Often, the answer is no, what you had might not be good enough anymore.
A local hospital recently reached out to KTS as they were implementing the Epic electronic medical record system. The required cable for all EMR platforms is Category 6 (1Gb), although most manufacturers recommend category 6A cabling (10Gb). KTS was able to help them upgrade their structured cabling to make the switch to Epic effective and easy.
Structured Cabling is the backbone of your network, and it needs to be scalable, secure and reliable. It should be reviewed periodically to ensure it is supporting the demands you are placing on it. Without periodically reviewing and updating your backbone cabling, you will not get the most out of your upgraded equipment.
That is to say, if you upgrade your network equipment, the benefits are only realized if you have the backbone cabling to support the same speeds. In everyday terms, adding upgraded network equipment to structured cabling that can’t support it is like buying the newest and best smart phone but using a 3G network. It just won’t give you what you need.
As your facility continues to need more connectivity to support ever-increasing communication demands, let KTS help you assess your current state and review upcoming initiatives to help you plan for a strong communications backbone to support your organization. Contact us, and we’ll help you prioritize your needs and phase the efforts to meet your timeline and your budget.
