Addiction centers are made to be comfortable because there are few things more difficult than overcoming a chemical dependency. Wireless technologies have not only entered and begun to revolutionize medical care accessibility on the service end, with electronic medical records now available in the cloud, allowing for dramatically improved diagnosis times, but the receiving end of care is being improved, too. The American Addiction Center’s Nevada branch has just received a shot of modern tech in the arm, and it is going to make a stay in its Desert Hope facility much more efficient, and exponentially more tolerable. But are wireless solutions the best bet in the long term?
Xirrus, a provider in high-performance wireless network solutions, is employing the same kind of technology used to bring Internet connectivity to students in Atlanta, Xirrus Wireless Arrays, in order to serve every person in the 70,000 square foot rehabilitation facility mobile access.
The paper records at Desert Hope are being transferred to electronic files that staff will now be able to readily access from standard issue iPads. The wireless network will also support a nurse call button for easy, constant access to patient needs, as well as real-time access to schedules and therapy reports of residents.
IT operates on a dual-band, so the network can provide all of these services while also giving patients wireless connectivity to the Internet and providing security to the sensitive information taken care of on the administrative end. That’s where the solution seems to shine the most: patient accessibility. The recovery process is difficult even in the best facilities; having full mobile connectivity opens up the ability to not only have immediate access to staff in case of a crisis, but also puts the support system of friends and family in the palm of a recovering addict’s hand.
The network access is completely scalable so the AAC is in complete control when it comes to making sure everyone on the network is served, even as facility populations fluctuate and new demands become apparent. It is expected that the kind of wireless innovation will be applied to American Addiction Centers across the nation.
This is all great stuff, but wireless? Those fiber optics supporters who subscribe to the belief that this sort of wireless tech is the less-efficient model when providing this sort of scalable solution are met with a quick and simple response here. As the ACC considers spreading the wireless solution to its other facilities, it looks to the Wi-Fi as a competitive advantage. It’s definitely true that retrofitting old facilities with new wired infrastructure would be much more expensive, but we’ll need to wait and see if this assertion of arrays over Ethernet will lead to a shorter life for the service than expected.
Edited by
Rachel Ramsey
