Huawei’s CloudCampus Solution Helps Aihui Health Create a Home-Like Patient Experience

Background

In the era of the Internet, requirements for healthcare have undergone a quiet change. Instead of healthcare concentrated on sickness, it should be focused on the patient. As well as providing a wide range of treatment services, hospitals also need to establish a platform for convenient communication with patients and to share necessary information in real time. In addition, hospitals must ensure patients enjoy a high-quality experience during their stay with regards to life, leisure, and consumption.

Aihui Health, a leading provider of Internet-based hospital services in Shanghai, provides bedside information, entertainment, and consumption services in hospitals through deployment of Wi-Fi networks and function-rich bedside screen systems. Aihui has utilized the 2B+1C business model (hospitals and content providers + patients and their families) to roll out its services in close to 100 hospitals throughout 32 cities within two years. Aihui’s services operate in 44,752 hospital beds out of 108,588 beds in total. In addition, three rounds of financing for a total of CNY130 million was completed in 2017.

Challenges

The rapid growth in services was possible due to the proper plan developed by Aihui’s network team that specified:

Network deployment must be fast to prevent patients from disturbances and meet the requirements for rapid service expansion.

Network management capability must be able to facilitate the service development requirements of 1,000+ hospitals across China and support smooth expansion.

The network required open interfaces to implement one-click, in-App Internet access.

Solution

Huawei’s CloudCampus Solution Facilitated Aihui’s Rapid Service Expansion

Aihui Health established a strategic partnership with Huawei. Based on Huawei’s cloud management platform, Aihui built an independent wireless network systems in each hospital to provide Internet access to bedside screens and wireless Internet access to caregivers and patients’ families.

CloudCampus Achieved Plug-and-Play, Network Deployment per Hospital Took an Average of Three Days

In 2017, Aihui’s services experienced rapid expansion. Based on the “Internet Plus” operating model, Aihui made advancements in the healthcare industry with a rapid increase in the number of contracts signed with tertiary A-level hospitals. Aihui’s network team was able to find the quickest method to deploy Wi-Fi networks in these hospitals. During its busiest period, the network team was challenged to deploy networks for over ten hospitals at the same time.

Through leverage of Huawei’s public cloud platform, Huawei’s CloudCampus Solution achieved cloud-based wireless network planning and device configuration, as well as other operations. This allowed Aihui’s network engineers to complete planning and configuration of each hospital network from headquarters so on-site hospital visits were not required. After the devices were delivered to the hospital, local workers installed and powered on the devices according to the drawings. They scanned the QR codes on the devices, such as APs and switches, to automatically discover the cloud platform and download the configuration file, and achieved plug-and-play deployment. This improved the hospital network’s deployment efficiency.

Due to Huawei’s CloudCampus Solution, each hospital’s network deployment period was reduced from 10 person-days to 3 person-days. This enabled Aihui to complete the wireless network deployment of more than 100 hospitals in one year for an astonishing efficiency. In addition, the cost of network installation and deployment was greatly reduced.

Figure 1-1 Barcode scanning-based deployment and plug-and-play

Cloud-Based Central Management of Nation-Wide Hospital Networks With Clear Visibility on the GIS Map

A GIS map is displayed on the Aihui cloud management portal’s homepage. The 100 hospitals with deployed networks are visible, and each network’s status is recognizable at a glance. Information on the display includes the number of devices and terminals that are currently online. In addition, the cloud management platform allows users to export a network-wide Preventive Maintenance Inspection (PMI) report with one click. The report includes device status and fault alarm information. Network engineers are no longer required to travel the extent of the country which improves management and O&M efficiency.

Figure 1-2 Map-based management of nation-wide hospitals

Cloud Platform’s Open Interfaces Quickly Increased Number of Downloaded Apps Through One-Click, In-App Internet Access Authentication

“Yihao” is Aihui’s mobile App in the “Internet Plus” healthcare ecosystem for patients and their family members. It integrates Aihui’s remote visiting service and various types of healthcare-related knowledge and facts. App downloads are an important indicator of Internet companies’ performance. How could Aihui ensure the App would be downloaded on a large scale?

Through Huawei’s CloudCampus Solution’s open APIs, Yihao integrates the wireless network in-App authentication function. This allows patients and their family members’ free connection to the Wi-Fi network by downloading and registering on the App. With this promotion model, App downloads’ volume experienced rapid increase. In addition, Huawei’s innovative Agile Distributed Wi-Fi Solution ensured users in the hospitals would enjoy a smooth and efficient Internet access experience.

Benefits

Guo Pengfei, Founder and President of Aihui Health, said, “Huawei’s CloudCampus Solution and Agile Distributed Wi-Fi Solution ensure users enjoy an optimal wireless coverage experience and provide simplified management through centralized nation-wide network configuration. In this way, Aihui’s requirements regarding nation-wide network deployment, smooth expansion, and easy O&M are met, and our service expansion model for the next five to ten years is supported”.

As a leader in the cloud industry, Huawei is active in leading the innovation and development of cloud-based network management, to enable digital transformation of customers in every industry. In this way, Huawei can provide more users with the CloudCampus Solution that features fast deployment, simplified management, and various applications, to help customers develop core competitiveness for the cloud era.