How can you communicate in a hospital?

CHU Liège has carried out a long, meticulous study

4420 operators, 925 beds… and just “pagers” to contact emergency teams. This is the situation today at CHU Liège, explains Christophe Lejeune, the Technical Architecture and Infrastructure Manager. Given this expensive and unsatisfactory situation for both medical staff and external callers, the CHU is currently in a phase of looking for the best solution. A first study was completed in June 2007 with this finding: Wi-Fi technology was not judged sufficiently mature for hospitals, DECT is stable and not too expensive, but does not evolve sufficiently and GSM is easy to manage, fast and inexpensive to install, but tricky to use in any one of the numerous basement levels and close to sensitive areas. As technologies have evolved over these past two years, a new study is in the process of being finalised. It appears to be leading towards a Wi-Fi solution supplemented by a dual-mode type offering.