Reference no: EM132279400

Forward Medical Center Networking Technology Plan

Modern organizations realize that, no matter what they manufacture or what activities they perform, well-running networking technology, a digital nervous system, is a necessity. They know the importance of networking to monitor work progress and ensure the data needed to tailor their products to the customer reach the right resource at the right time.

For this project, you will be developing a unified networking framework for a medical center that is working towards a paperless medical records system. Though the medical entity is fictional, the concept is not as, under the Federal HITECH Act, the Federal government is in essence mandating a massive drive toward having the American medical system become completely electronic health systems (EHS) by end of the decade.

It is still a class project but one that may directly impact your everyday life

Medical System General Overview

Today, hospitals generally conduct business with the use of multiple integrated healthcare information systems. However, a network does not exist for each system; rather, it must be designed, constructed, and operated as a single, common infrastructure. Since a network system failure can lead directly to entire hospital routines and operations coming to a halt, a reliable and comprehensive network is vital to hospital administration. The picture below (Allied Telesis, 2009) shows the number of complex processes that a hospital network may need to handle.

Note that, until recently, much of the data started as paper based records that eventually were mostly transcribed or scanned into systems. However, as part of the large America Recovery Act of 2009, the ‘‘Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act'' or the HITECH Act has started to require dramatic changes in the amount of electronic record management all medical providers must adopt.

For this project, we will be discussing the networking needs for a large medical center that is moving toward a paperless medical records system. To accomplish this, a major upgrade to the LAN of the Forward Medical Center is required.

Network Locations

At end of document you will find a schematic of the Forward Medical Center that will provide some information needed for determining network location and wiring closets/computer rooms that will need interconnected.

Campus and Buildings

To cover the entire campus area including between buildings, a wireless network will be required that includes appropriate security framework. Buildings include the following:

Hospital - this is the primary medical structure consisting of patient rooms, labs, offices, guest areas, pharmacy, dietary, medical scanning, guest amenities, etc.

Emergency Services - also includes operating and recovery rooms

Radiation/Oncology - as a safety measure, the majority of radiation based services and some medical scanning are relegated to this separate building

Outpatient Center - this area is devoted to patients that are having elective surgery that will not require overnight hospital stay

Psychiatry and Counseling Center - this area cares for in-hospital care related to psychiatric and addiction treatment

Medical School - as a teaching hospital, the Forward Medical Center has a large school tied directly to the hospital building. It includes some dormitory space.

Professional Center - this building consists of a number of medical offices for primary and specialty health services

Administration - this building houses the primary administration personnel including medical records, information technology services and the Network Operations Center.

Department/Floor

The networking needs for the floor will vary but normally each department/floor will contain the following:

Nursing stations

Medical records room

Patient rooms

Guest lounge

User Domains (5-6 pages)

Your project write-up for Part 1 will need to include an in-depth review of the user population for a business network infrastructure. These should include the following as a minimum usability study population:

- Office and administrative

There will be a need to extend the traditional desktop and server nodes to include laptops, tablets, and smartphones

Data needs would generally be less than within the hospital departments

- Nursing Floors

Nurses will need access via tablets and some rooms may need thin-client or laptop units

Strong security will need to be enabled to prevent outside access

- ER/ICU/OR

There will be extensive use of computing in all these areas along with BYOD for first responders, physicians, and nursing staff.

As there will be a mix of text and imaging needs, it should be considered a high-bandwidth need

Strong security will be required and, as the ER and ICU are public-facing departments, there will be some need for security measures such as swipe cards or biometrics.

- Patients/Guests

Standard guest access to the hospital Wi-Fi should be permitted in restricted areas such as the cafeteria, waiting rooms, and counseling centers on nursing floors.

Patients would generally not have access to Wi-Fi except in guest areas

Paper format:

Serif font

Single space sentences

1" margins

Page numbering