Background
Founded in 1888 by King Chulalongkorn, Siriraj Hospital is Thailand’s largest public hospital and one of Southeast Asia's biggest medical centers, with over 2,000 beds and more than 3 million patients treated annually. It also serves as a leading medical school, educating 300 undergraduate and 500 postgraduate medical students per year. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Siriraj Hospital became the country's main hub for fighting the virus while continuing to provide essential medical services.
Customer Requirements & Challenges
Siriraj Hospital faced several key challenges:
- Legacy and Complex Network: The hospital’s existing leased Wi-Fi services had reached the end of their effective lifecycle, with aging cabling and components limiting performance and scalability.
- Pervasive use of healthcare IoT applications: The widespread deployment of IoT medical devices, with many devices relying on a single SSID for connectivity, strained the network and led to potential issues such as bandwidth congestion, security vulnerabilities, and difficulty in managing device traffic.
- Need for Improved Efficiency: Diverse infrastructure needs, including wired and wireless networks. Deploying and maintaining network infrastructure in healthcare is challenging due to the need for minimal disruption to critical services, regulatory requirements, and the integration of various medical devices.
Technology Solution
To address these network infrastructure challenges, Siriraj Hospital implemented a comprehensive upgrade focusing on Wi-Fi and Fiber-to-the-Room (FTTR) technologies. Huawei provided the network infrastructure solution for this project, which included:
- High-quality Wireless: Wi-Fi 7+2.5GE upgrade in all scenarios, meeting evolution requirements in 10 years together with convergence of IoT from APs with built-in IoT cards and multiple functions.
- Reliable Network Architecture: The network is built to deliver high reliability, minimizing downtime and ensuring stable performance. This is essential in a hospital environment where connectivity directly supports critical operations.
- Simplified O&M: Digital map, experience-centered intelligent O&M. Network and security collaboration, near-source blocking, and second-level threat handling. VIP assurance for key services, zero complaints, and high satisfaction.
- Fiber-to-the-Room: Fiber optic network system deployed to VIP wards, reducing cabling space requirements and costs by more than 30%, while reducing power consumption by 30%.
Operational Outcomes
The network infrastructure upgrade delivered several measurable operational improvements:
- Enhanced Patient Experience: Delivers fast, reliable connections in crowded areas like infusion rooms and lobbies, supporting smart devices and enhancing patient digital experience.
- Seamless Mobility and Connectivity: Ensures uninterrupted wireless access as patients and staff move, boosting efficiency and enabling real-time access to medical records anywhere.
- Smooth and Reliable IoT Deployment: No need for separate Bluetooth, RFID, or Zigbee receivers — built-in IoT integration reduces hardware costs and simplifies network design.
- Faster Response to IT Issues: Real-time visibility enables proactive troubleshooting of network and application issues, reducing downtime and avoiding service delays to patients.
