Challenge
Over the last year Central DuPage implemented several major technology initiatives:

• A significant VoIP deployment
• Telemetry to provide patient monitoring in cardiology unit
• Full implementation of a Computerized Physician Order Entry (CPOE) system

Central DuPage lacked adequate tools to manage network, application, and connectivity issues associated with a recent VoIP implementation and expansion of critical network applications. The organization desperately needed an analyzer to monitor network performance.

Solution
Central DuPage used Observer® Expert to conduct network assessments to benchmark network performance before implementing VoIP. Observer remains crucial in monitoring the four-hundred Cisco 7920 phones, as well as monitoring wireless network communications between doctors, nurses, other hospital staff, and patients. The wireless network transmits patient health information and alerts hospital staff to avert potential health crises.

Using Observer to Manage VoIP
“Initially, we didn’t have adequate network analysis tools to manage network, application, or connectivity issues,” said Jack King, director of IT for Central DuPage Hospital. “We were in the middle of a significant VoIP deployment and had plans for implementing other critical network applications. We really needed some type of network analyzer to monitor and maintain network performance.”

Central DuPage worked through Jeff Parker, managing partner of OpenWater Solutions, who recommended Network Instruments’ Observer Expert and the GigaStor appliance. They immediately used Observer Expert to conduct network assessments, thus ensuring a successful VoIP deployment.

Performing WLAN Diagnosis
In addition to managing the VoIP network, King uses Observer to monitor and troubleshoot other applications and basic network infrastructure. For example, the wireless network facilitates communications between doctors, nurses, and hospital staff, delivers patient heart information in real-time to the nurse’s phone, and delivers Internet access, which the hospital provides free to patients and their family. All of these applications and activities are critical in ensuring the hospital functions and effectively cares for its patients.

Before using Observer, employees complained about connectivity issues, often erroneously blaming the network. Another key task of Network Instruments’ analysis solutions is to perform regular network audits.

With patients and equipment being shuffled throughout the hospital, the network is in a state of constant change. Observer Expert allows IT staff to quickly identify and fix performance problems, whether the source is the application or the network. Audits are key to understanding the impact of infrastructure changes on network performance.

The importance of audits and monitoring was illustrated recently when the staff noticed that Wireless Medical Telemetry Service (WMTS) network connections were being unexpectedly dropped. WMTS is used to monitor and report patient physiological parameters (such as cardiac signals) through the wireless network to the nurse's phone to alert them of any emergency.

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