Smart Connectivity, Security and Mobility – Enabling the New Healthcare Enterprise

Healthcare providers spend millions of dollars a year replacing lost or stolen equipment. They also spend time: according to one study, at least one in three nurses devote an hour or more per shift searching for medical supplies or equipment; many resort to hoarding devices to ensure their patients get quick access to care. The problem became particularly acute when COVID-19 pandemic created shortages of respirators and other equipment.

Emerging Internet of Things (IoT) capabilities are addressing this longstanding challenge with solutions that tag and track mobile equipment. Data-collecting sensors, AI and machine learning-enabled video analytics and beacons identify and monitor the location and movement of assets anywhere in a facility. The precise location of an asset can be determined via a mobile phone, tablet or computer query. As a result, hospitals reduce theft, as well as inventory and maintenance costs, while care teams get faster access to equipment and improve the quality of services.

The changing healthcare landscape

Another critical impact of the pandemic has been to expand telemedicine and remote visits; this, in turn, has driven demand for bandwidth-intensive applications and graphics capabilities for distance consultations and video conferencing for training. To address this need, hospitals are turning to flexible, zero-touch provisioning of network connectivity to enable rapid and flexible deployment, high-bandwidth performance and transparency and oversight, as well as the modernization of obsolete legacy technology.

These capabilities enhance patient access to care portals and facilitate collaboration between teams in different locations. High-bandwidth connectivity is also an essential component of wearable devices, since captured patient information must be immediately accessible to healthcare providers.

New healthcare solutions: Providing options and improving the customer experience

Claro Enterprise Solutions (CES) offers a range of capabilities aligned to the requirements of the healthcare industry. Security solutions, for instance, address both traditional firewall environments as well as virtual software-defined perimeters. End user training and awareness programs are designed to keep employees alert to evolving threats.

Enhancing collaboration and customer and user experiences is another top priority for healthcare. Through a recent partnership with Talkdesk, a leading contact center technology provider, CES offers a solution designed specifically to help healthcare providers manage call volumes, simplify scheduling and engage with recipients to provide information. As a value-added reseller, CES enables easy application integration, along with extensive functionality and compliance with industry standards.

CES' Workspace Services - Identifying problems and delivering results

As healthcare teams increasingly rely on mobile devices to communicate, collaborate, and deliver care, mobile functionality must adapt. Claro Enterprise Solutions is focused on aligning different levels of mobile functionality and security to different user personas.  This ensures that each employee has the functionality they need, while avoiding licensing and maintenance fees for software that sits idle.

The imperative to reduce costs and enhance operations has intensified in response to the pandemic’s impact on revenue-generating procedures, as hospitals focused on providing care for COVID patients. For mid-sized and regional hospitals facing the prospect of acquisition by larger providers, the pressure is particularly acute.

This blog post is based on an article that originally appeared in Healthtech Magazines.