Hospitals

As the population in India and around the world age and there is increased acuity, it presents an opportunity and a challenge to healthcare administrators. The challenge is that over new hospitals or expansions will be required in India, low income countries middle income countries and high-income countries The Middle East. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for hospital administrators in India and around the world to plan for reducing the total cost of ownership of their proposed hospital buildings, such that critical information around the building, campus and the community is available over a secure network to provide safer, faster, better and cheaper delivery of healthcare, improve patient safety and increase efficiency and savings. Empirically, if planned correctly.

A smart connected hospital building can reduce capital expenditure by and increase the operational efficiency by over per annum over its lifetime, thus accelerating the break even for the investment in newer hospitals as well as enlarging the pie of the healthcare access in these regions. Cisco creates virtualisation of healthcare services, increases collaboration and converges voice, video, and clinical and operational data through several solutions that are offered over the life cycle of the hospital from conceptualisation to post-construction and operations of the hospital buildings.

Connected Imaging enables secure, scalable imaging services which improve productivity, collaboration and cost optimisation across the workflow. The solution includes several modules and uses a Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine standard services layer from its partners to provide intelligent image routing and access to grid-based images. Cisco's integrated load balancing and virtualisation ensures that images are stored and retrieved quickly. The result is that a technologist can send a CT scan to PACS in less time, and radiologists can retrieve the study more quickly because the storage virtualisation services deliver the images from the most accessible source.

Clinical Collaboration solutions which include Mobile Care, Mobile Collaboration and Context Aware Services, leverages the network to offer healthcare customers to improve the quality of patient experience. The network thus becomes an intelligent building infrastructure and the foundation for integration and transformation of the medical facility and processes. This 'intelligent hospital' infrastructure creates an unprecedented opportunity for improved services, enhanced processes, and cost-effective operations. Embedding information networks as the fourth utility - as fundamental as physical plumbing, piping and wiring.