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Best Network Telemetry Tools for the Healthcare Industry

network telemetry

A hospital or healthcare facility is often a place where people can least afford to have things go wrong, and they're places where just about anything can go wrong. From security to temperature to communications, the healthcare industry has a million moving parts that have to run smoothly. It can be literally a matter of life and death.

That's why the healthcare industry has a vested interest in staying on top of things. In a busy, and often chaotic environment, a simple and efficient monitoring solution is ideal. More and more, that means network telemetry.

Network telemetry is well-known in fields like telecommunications, and they are crucial anywhere systems need to be monitored.

This can mean a network of healthcare facilities over a wide geographic area, or just one self-contained clinic. Anything can be considered "remote" if people can't be monitoring all things at all times.

But a network telemetry system can make everything - in effect - less remote. It can bring together communications so that every sensitive area is monitored and so that the right person can get the right alert if something goes wrong.

Here are some of the best network telemetry tools to keep your healthcare facility communications healthy.

The Network Telemetry Tools Powering the Healthcare Industry

What's important at a healthcare facility? Short answer: everything. What can be better secured by an efficient telemetry system? Same short answer: everything. Here are just a few.

Security

Security is crucial in a hospital. The 2019 Healthcare Crime Survey showed that the average across America was 1.4 violent crimes per 100 hospital beds, with a full 45 disorderly conducts per 100 beds. It makes sense; being in the hospital can involve stressful situations where people come for all sorts of reasons. Security is of the essence.

That's why excellent hospital telemetry tools include:

  • IP Cameras
  • Access control
  • Door alarms
  • Theft prevention alarms (on medicine cabinets)

What happens when one of these alarms are triggered? Thankfully, a properly-installed system will handle that with call escalation.

Emergency Call Escalation

We rightfully think of hospitals as places filled with highly-trained medical first responders. But often, when a security alarm is triggered, there is a need for other first responders.

A simple remote telemetry unit will monitor those alarms, and based on a system you've configured, issue alerts to relevant parties, including police forces, internal security, staff, leadership, or more. These are sent out as:

  • Emails
  • Text
  • SNMP
  • Phone/ Voice Calls

Up to eight people can be notified per alarm point, which means when something goes wrong, the right people are notified. First responders can respond immediately. You'll get the help you need.

A Site Dialer can also handle call escalation for emergency situations. By assigning voice notifications for alarm points you need to protect, you can help secure your key facilities and ensure the safety of your co-workers.

You can even assign custom voice alerts for a number of points throughout an entire site. So, when you need emergency notifications made to the police, fire and rescue, and your key management, you'll be set. You should also consider environmental monitoring for your key areas.

Environmental Monitoring in Every Room

Hospitals and healthcare facilities have a lot of sensitive equipment that is vulnerable to even small changes in environmental conditions. This can sometimes be an internal server room. It can be a laboratory with important samples. Very often, it is equipment that is keeping patients alive.

Oftentimes, it is the patients themselves who need to be protected from changes.

That can be difficult in large buildings. But a system that can monitor multiple rooms is ideal. A series of centrally-connected sensors throughout your building can monitor:

  • Temperature
  • Humidity
  • External temperature
  • Ground water

Don't let it get too hot or cold. Don't put important items at risk. Protect your patients.

Temperature Monitoring for Vaccine Storage

Vaccines are among the most important items at any hospital or healthcare facility. They need to be kept cold, so that they are ready to go when needed. A batch of vaccines going bad could be mortal trouble for a person, and it's still an expensive waste even if there is no health impact.

A temperature monitoring system for your vaccine storage can measure a number of things, including:

  • Temperatures that are too high
  • Temperatures that are too low
  • When temperatures begin to rise dangerously
  • Boiler failures
  • Chiller failures
  • Exterior temperatures to measure true potential for danger

As a hospital in Gaston County could attest, understanding what is happening in your entire system helps you understand if your vaccines are in danger. If a chiller goes, you know that the vaccines are in trouble even before the temperatures start to rise.

That's whole-system monitoring.

The Importance of Whole-System Monitoring

Hospitals are enormous living organisms, interconnected in very real ways. Intake, from the helicopter pad to the ER doors, brings people in, gets them where they need to go, and involves specialists and equipment from all over the hospital. It's constant movement to fulfill the mission. Network telemetry tools can help make that mission run more smoothly by connecting the organism.

You can see everything in your system. You can see any problems. And, you can see conditions that might lead to problems, so you can stop them beforehand.

The benefits of having the best network telemetry tools are pretty obvious. Really, it isn't brain surgery. It just makes brain surgery - and everything else at your healthcare facility - safer, more efficient, and more oriented toward saving lives.

DPS Telecom has the experience and expertise to help companies monitor what matters most in the healthcare industry. Our technicians can work with you to install RTUs with easy-to-use interfaces for more automatic responses. Reach out and get a quote today!

Image courtesy Unsplash