Basic consumer Wi-Fi varies greatly in quality; you never really know what you’re going to get. Medical grade Wi-Fi®, on the other hand, is subject to strict quality standards to maintain consistency and safety for all users. Adding this type of Medical Wi-Fi network to your facility could bring a number of improvements to both your staff and your residents.
Earning the ‘Medical Grade’ Label
In order to be deemed medical grade, a Wi-Fi network must meet all of the following criteria:
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Coverage:
Senior living Wi-Fi coverage can be spotty in many larger buildings, making it difficult to know when and where you will be able to access the internet. Medical Grade Wi-Fi®; provides 100% coverage over its service area, so you’ll never have to wonder if you will be able to get a signal no matter where you go inside the building.
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Capacity:
Capacity refers to the number of devices a Wi-Fi network can support at one time. Medical Grade Wi-Fi® is built with an extremely high capacity to accommodate simultaneous use by a large number of devices. Life-sustaining medical devices are given top priority within the network to ensure that they are always able to access the bandwidth they need.
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Medical Wi-Fi Signal Strength:
Signal strength is prioritized at -67db in an enterprise-grade network (the minimum for Voice over Wi-Fi) and may be nominal or best effort at the consumer level. Signal strength in a medical Wi-Fi network is engineered and guaranteed at -65db or greater (that may not sound like much, but it is a 56% stronger signal).
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Reliability:
Signal reliability must be as high as possible since Wi-Fi downtime in a medical setting could cost lives. While many enterprise-grade Wi-Fi solutions boast impressive reliability of 99% or more, Medical Grade Wi-Fi® networks offer 99.9% signal reliability you can truly depend on.
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Certainty:
A network’s certainty refers to its ability to operate without interference in an environment with high radio frequencies. The certainty of Medical Grade Wi-Fi® networks is rated ‘very high,’ promising fail-safe performance in mission and life-critical environments. In addition, medical Wi-Fi is highly secure and fail-safe with no single point of failure. Self-monitoring and alert mechanisms ensure that alerts are sent at every failure, and you can set up rules-based alerts. Routine device pinging ensures that devices are functioning properly, and if they are not functioning as expected, you can take corrective measures right away to avoid failures during critical periods.
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Medical Wi-Fi Security:
Medical Grade Wi-Fi® must comply with HIPAA’s strict privacy standards. Networks employ a variety of cutting-edge digital and over-the-air security measures to ensure that patients’ sensitive health data is never compromised by data breaches or cyberattacks.
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Maintenance:
A Medical Grade Wi-Fi® network is backed up by self-monitoring systems that alert IT staff of device outages and other emerging problems. These issues can then be addressed proactively to avoid further outages at critical periods.
Applications of Medical Wi-Fi for Senior
Living Facilities
Most of the requirements that define Medical Grade Wi-Fi® assume that it will be used in conjunction with medical devices, but you can use your new network for much more than that. A few of the potential applications for Medical Grade Wi-Fi® include:
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Resident use
Residents can use their new high-bandwidth connection to read the news, stream television and movies, enjoy video calls with family and friends, and much more.
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Public access to medical wi-fi
Providing a strong Wi-Fi connection for guest use allows visitors to see that your facility is a comfortable and modern establishment. This paints your facility in a favorable light and may even result in new customers.
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Business and medical administration
Running a senior living facility means dealing with reams of notes, forms, papers, presentations, and more. A high-quality Wi-Fi connection can help to streamline day-to-day duties like billing, charting, and medication management, saving your staff hours of time each day.
Medical Grade Wi-Fi® Solutions for CCRCs
Installing Medical Wi-Fi on the premises is a large progressive step for your senior living Wi-Fi facility, but the process is not without its own unique challenges. At HealthSignals, we pride ourselves on our CCRC telecommunications expertise. Read our whitepaper to learn more about how to properly implement medical Wi-Fi in your facility or contact us to discuss your institution’s unique needs.