Oregon-based Women's Healthcare Associates Deploys Wireless Network Solution From Meru Networks

Doctors Will Gain Seamless Mobile Access to Electronic Patient Records
 

SUNNYVALE, Calif., May 5, 2008 – Women's Healthcare Associates of Portland, Ore., has implemented a wireless solution from Meru Networks to give clinicians seamless wireless access to patient records on their mobile devices as they move from room to room in the system's six facilities.

In preparation for converting to an electronic medical records (EMR) system this year, Women's Healthcare Associates outfitted its facilities in Portland, Tualatin, Newberg, Sherwood and Beaverton with Meru equipment that supports both the new high-performance IEEE 802.11n wireless LAN standard and legacy 802.11a/b/g standards.

Gary Henderson, IT manager for Women's Healthcare Associates (WHA), said the selection of Meru was based on the need to ensure uninterrupted connectivity for approximately 120 physicians and other medical staff as they move throughout the facilities providing patient care.

"Our most critical application, GE Centricity EMR, doesn't deal well with jumping between access points," Henderson said. "If the application loses contact with the database, the connection fails, and it's very frustrating for the doctors to have to reconnect to the network. Unlike other vendors we evaluated, Meru puts all of its access points on the same channel, so that roaming between access points does not interrupt the application. This ensures that our doctors will have seamless mobility without the disruption of lost connections."

WHA's five clinical facilities and one administration building are each equipped with Meru dual-radio AP320 wireless access points, which deliver 802.11n draft 2.0 performance while simultaneously supporting legacy 802.11a/b/g devices. Each of the AP320's two 802.11a/b/g/n radios provides capacity of up to 300 megabits per second and can operate at both 2.4 and 5 GHz. Redundant Meru MC3050 controllers provide centralized control and management for the geographically dispersed access points.

"Meru gave us an easy path to 802.11n, which we will ultimately be using throughout the network, because a faster application is better for our clinicians' productivity," Henderson said. "Meru equipment was also extremely easy to deploy because the single-channel approach eliminates the need for channel planning. And we'll be able to easily add capabilities such as RFID and voice as we need them."

Henderson and his staff learned about Meru through Technocom, an infrastructure solutions provider to businesses in Oregon and Washington. Scott Reetz, Technocom account executive, said, "We were looking at a customer's absolute requirement for zero loss of connection as doctors walk through the clinics making diagnoses and referencing patient records. We found that Meru could provide the seamless mobility they needed, while at the same time being much less trouble to deploy than other WLAN solutions."

About Women's Healthcare Associates
Women's Healthcare Associates, LLC, is an Oregon-based obstetrics, gynecology, midwifery, and maternal fetal medicine center that offers comprehensive, leading-edge women's services. Other services include mammography, bone density testing, urogynecology, advanced surgical procedures, genetic counseling, and ultrasound. The company is a high-quality, service-oriented women's healthcare group that understands the medical needs of women at every stage of their lives. Locations include offices in Portland, Tualatin, Sherwood and Newberg.

About Meru Networks
Meru Networks is the global leader in wireless infrastructure solutions that enable the All-Wireless Enterprise. Its industry-leading innovations deliver pervasive, wireless service fidelity for business-critical applications to major Fortune 500 enterprises, universities, healthcare organizations and local, state and federal government agencies. Meru's award-winning Air Traffic Control technology brings the benefits of the cellular world to the wireless LAN environment, and its WLAN System is the only solution on the market that delivers predictable bandwidth and over-the-air Quality of Service with the reliability, scalability, and security necessary to deliver converged voice and data services over a single WLAN infrastructure. Founded in 2002, Meru is based in Sunnyvale, California. For more information on Meru Networks and its products, visit www.merunetworks.com or call (408) 215-5300.