New Development Direction of Wireless Technology-Analysis of Hospital Wireless Network Technology

Hospitals are gradually becoming paperless, filmless and wireless. Wireless has made new developments based on traditional medical wireless applications (such as wireless medical telemetry, etc.). Wireless data applications, such as mobile ward rounds and mobile bedside care, are new application models developed based on clinical information systems (EMR, LIS, PACS, etc.) according to link quality management requirements, and have gradually become an important part of clinical business processes.

Wireless coverage mode

The three most common wireless coverage methods used in the medical industry are ordinary APs, wireless switches, and WLAN indoor signal distribution systems.

Ordinary APs were tried by some hospitals in the early days, but due to many problems such as inconvenient centralized management, poor signal coverage, and long roaming switching delay, there are very few hospitals that use ordinary APs on a large scale. Wireless switches, with their convenient centralized management and zero AP configuration, and indoor distribution systems, with their advantages of zero roaming delay in wards and near-perfect signal coverage, have become two wireless systems widely used in the medical industry.

The wireless switch system eliminates the traditional method of AP-based transmission platform and adopts the back-end center switch + thin AP method. It places a wireless switch in the user's computer room as the center of data processing and AP management, and places several APs with antenna functions (commonly known as thin APs, and some manufacturers still use fat APs) at the front end, so that all management and data processing are concentrated on the more powerful wireless switch. The most obvious advantages of wireless switches: centralized intelligent management; more efficient wireless security policy management.

Indoor signal distribution system, each device is generally composed of a base station, a feeder, multiple antennas, power splitters and couplers, and multiple devices are centrally managed and controlled by a controller. After the base station signal is processed by combining and bidirectional amplification, it is output to the signal distribution system composed of power splitters, couplers, feeders and antennas through a signal output port. When the mobile terminal moves under the same WLAN signal distribution system, it will always maintain a good connection with the base station, and always maintain high bandwidth and low latency during movement, without the various problems caused by switching between APs. Indoor signal distribution system, except for base stations, is mainly composed of passive devices, which have low requirements for the operating environment, are durable, not prone to failure, and basically do not require maintenance.

Tips: Selection suggestions

The main advantages of wireless switch technology: unified management and configuration of APs, even zero configuration is possible for thin APs, all configuration information is completed on the wireless switch controller, which can greatly reduce the workload of AP configuration; centralized authentication of wireless user terminals; flexible placement of APs and convenient wiring. Disadvantages: in places where a large number of APs are needed for coverage, channel allocation is a thorny issue, which can easily cause channel interference; signal coverage strength and roaming switching between APs need to be further improved.

The advantages of indoor distribution system are: fewer occupied channels, less wireless interference; guaranteed wireless signal strength; no roaming switching problems; simpler maintenance. Disadvantages are: a single set of equipment shares bandwidth, the theoretical bandwidth value is small; the equipment is independent, unified authentication requires the cooperation of the central controller; wiring is more complicated.

For hospital application environments, it is recommended to use wireless switches to cover relatively open areas. One or two APs can complete the coverage, and the construction cost is low, such as infusion rooms, ICUs, etc. In areas with dense rooms and many partitions, indoor distribution systems are used for coverage, such as wards and operating rooms.

Main application areas

Mobile doctor workstation. The mobile doctor workstation is developed according to the information needs of the patient's bedside. With the mobile doctor workstation, doctors can move between wards for rounds; they can immediately consult and formulate treatment plans based on the rounds, historical records and clinical examination results, and can check the patient's medical records and images at the bedside. Doctors can also enter information into the computer in a timely manner based on the rounds, and immediately issue tests, examinations, treatments and other medical orders according to changes in the patient's condition, avoiding re-copying of medical orders after rounds or supplementing medical orders and recording the course of disease based on memory, resulting in duplication of work and even errors. Combined with the clinical drug knowledge base and drug incompatibility alarm system, doctors can promptly correct medical orders at the bedside of inpatients and use reasonable drugs to treat them, thus minimizing the occurrence of errors.

Mobile nurse workstation. Nurses can check the patient's basic information, vital signs, and medical order information in real time at the bedside; collect bedside physical symptom information in real time; split medical orders according to clinical pathways, and automatically remind nurses of the medical orders that should be executed in this shift; record the execution of medical orders in real time and track the entire life cycle of medical orders; automatically remind nurses when to measure the patient's temperature, blood pressure, weight, etc. according to the patient's nursing level, surgical conditions, and other information; check the patient's examination and test appointment information; and automatically count the input and output volume, etc.

Outpatient infusion management. Mobile technology is not only well applied in wards, but also plays a good role in outpatient infusion management. Outpatient infusion management truly introduces barcode technology, wireless network technology and mobile computing technology into hospital process management, realizes direct binding with hospital business processes, and reduces error rates and improves efficiency through process reengineering. For the entire management process of a hospital, the transformation of the outpatient infusion process is partial. As long as the informationization of drug management is available, the outpatient infusion system can be used.

The outpatient infusion system enables nurses to accurately check the patient's identity and drug barcode, respond to the patient's request for help at the right time and place, and accurately record the treatment information. At the same time, this system can also respond to the patient's needs in a timely manner, improve the patient's satisfaction with medical treatment, and make the hospital's services more humane.

Patient identification and drug identification. Combine wireless networks, mobile computers, mobile data terminals (EDA) and barcode technologies to solve the problem of patient and drug identification and verification, and prevent patient medication errors. At the bedside, nurses use wireless identification devices to scan patient wristbands and infusion patches with barcodes, and detailed information about the patient's identification, medication, dosage and method will be confirmed at the nurse workstation via WLAN. Before dispensing medication, infusion, examination, treatment, first aid, and surgery, if there are any differences, the alarm system will display a warning to avoid any possible errors.

Tips: Application effects of mobile workstations

The application of mobile medical workstations completely solves the problem of where to enter information, and reduces the reliance on paper. Therefore, it is very meaningful to improve work efficiency, improve medical quality, and reduce medical errors, and the results are reflected in many aspects. First, it helps nurses to correctly execute medical orders; second, it tracks the entire medical service process; third, it provides an objective basis for the performance evaluation of medical staff. Its fundamental purpose is to reduce the error rate, improve the quality of medical services, and reflect the core principle of patient-centeredness. If the hospital's medical treatment process is to be thoroughly optimized and the goal of "paperless and filmless" is truly achieved, mobile medical workstations must be implemented.

These characteristics of mobile medical workstations enable them to play an increasingly important role in the hospital information construction. Developed countries such as the United States and Japan have already used mobile medical workstations more commonly. In China, mobile medical workstations have also been well promoted and applied in recent years. For example, Fuzhou General Hospital of Nanjing Military Region, Zhejiang Run Run Shaw Hospital, Wuxi People's Hospital, PLA General Hospital, 251 and other hospitals have implemented mobile doctor or nurse workstations, which have also played a very good role.

Special personnel management

Mother-baby pairing. After delivery, the baby and mother are given a card and wristband tag, respectively, and set to a one-to-one matching relationship. When the medical staff returns the baby to the mother's ward, if the two tags do not match, an alarm will appear.

Baby theft prevention. The baby is equipped with a harmless smart electronic tag that emits radio frequency signals. At the same time, a wireless monitoring network is installed in the area that needs to be controlled in the hospital to receive the wireless signals emitted by the RFID. In this way, the baby's location can be monitored and tracked in real time, and an alarm can be issued in time for any attempt to steal the baby.

Special patient management. Real-time location monitoring of special patient groups will be performed, and an alarm will be automatically issued when the patient enters a dangerous area or leaves a safe area. When a patient encounters a critical situation, an alarm message can be issued immediately to get help.

asset Management

Introduce RFID management and tracking technology to solve the problem of discrepancies between physical fixed assets and cards, and cards and financial accounts. Implement equipment inspection, quick access to repair and maintenance records, and equipment reliability early warning processing. Improve the electronic business process from budget declaration, approval, procurement, warehousing, collection, transfer to inventory, and realize transparent and centralized management of fixed assets.

Realize visual management of hospital supplies. By using advanced technologies such as RFID, wireless network and EDA, we can dynamically grasp the inventory of materials and their corresponding locations in real time, and whether the accounts are consistent, thus realizing visual management of materials.

Apply RFID to the management of emergency equipment and mobile materials, realize the rapid location of equipment and materials in emergency situations, ensure that emergency medical equipment can be found immediately when needed, avoid delaying the patient's rescue time due to the search for medical equipment, and improve emergency support capabilities.

Call Communication

After establishing WLAN, hospitals can use IP voice (VoIP) system to replace traditional communication systems (such as paging stations, etc.), realize the transmission of voice and video data in the network, and provide two-way voice and video communication. Medical staff can receive calls from patients through handheld devices, talk to patients directly, and immediately understand the needs of patients. Many critically ill patients can therefore receive timely rescue and special care. At the same time, doctors can also understand the conditions of some infectious isolated patients (such as SARS) through the WLAN voice system, effectively protecting the health and safety of medical staff.

Nursing monitoring

By configuring wireless cameras, you can achieve WLAN-based video surveillance, getting rid of the tediousness of rewiring. This technology can be used to monitor wards, pharmacies and other important places. The management software of wireless cameras can monitor multiple sites at the same time and record the on-site situation in the monitoring center. The wireless video surveillance system is combined with the hospital's wireless communication system. After receiving the patient's paging signal, the staff can directly understand the patient's current condition on the computer terminal through the network and take corresponding medical measures. This plays an important role in the monitoring of critically ill patients.

The above are only some of the applications of wireless networks. As applications expand, wireless networks will play an increasingly important role.