The Challenge
Historically, local health districts used a variety of different services or simply did not provide Wi-Fi at all. Internet access wasn’t always available or reliable and different firewall policies meant that the experience was highly varied across the state.
Those organisations that did run a service found implementing and managing guest Wi-Fi to be extremely complex and expressed a strong desire to use a service provider with expertise in this area.
Having access to statewide service offerings that are consistent across all facilities, simple to use, fit for purpose and secure is a critical requirement to meet both patient and business expectations.
The Plan
Starting in 2016, the Patient and Guest Wi-Fi roll out was completed in 2021 using eHealth NSW’s Health Wide Area Network (HWAN).
This followed a pilot with Sydney Children’s Hospital Network and Port Macquarie Base Hospital that determined the Wi-Fi solution was viable.
The team considered multiple use cases and built the system to cater for:
- long stay and frequently returning patients providing free access to the premium service via vouchers
- access to online classes for in-hospital school children in wards
- privacy internet filters that still gave access for video calls, music and movie streaming plus social media
eHealth NSW worked closely with our IT delivery partners to deliver the Wi-Fi system as both a free and paid service. The paid option is better for activities requiring faster download speeds such as gaming or Netflix.
The Outcome
At the end of December 2022, a total of 181 NSW Health sites were using the Statewide Patient and Guest Wi-Fi Service.
The Benefits
With high-speed performance and built-in resilience, Patient and Guest Wi-Fi securely keeps patients and guests connected and amused during times of often great stress.
The service:
- Connects patients to their families, education, business, and entertainment
- Improves patient social wellbeing
- Helps children attend hospital schools
- Enables constant connection to the Wi-Fi network across NSW Health facilities.
Data correct as of October 2023