Our News

How your network can be leveraged to support your Trust’s response to COVID-19

As we move beyond the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, we want to look at new ways of supporting our health and care clients right now and prepare for a potential second wave.

Learn how you can leverage existing IT infrastructure to make hospitals ‘COVID-secure’ and how new practices could be adopted to ensure the safety of staff, patients and visitors.

COVID-19 has seen a rapid shift in the way health and care is provided, with digital transformation being at the forefront of many of these changes. Technology has enabled the continued provision of care during this crisis and NHS Trusts are now looking to keep the momentum and use these innovations in a variety of clinical settings to encourage and adopt new ways of working.

Wi-Fi in the NHS – much more than just a connection to the internet

Wi-Fi is now critical to the provision of patient care in many hospitals and is at the forefront of the transition to a paperless healthcare system. This same investment is also leveraged to provide the ubiquitous NHS Wi-Fi service that is now available freely in all primary and secondary care settings. Now we can use Wi-fi to provide value beyond connectivity.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Block is helping our customers leverage the power of Wi-Fi to support new working practices – giving visibility into social distancing compliance and the effectiveness of changes in floor layout.

Taking the wireless network to the next level

Powered by Cisco DNA Spaces, we can use Wi-Fi to provide the following:

  • Providing proximity reporting for contact tracing – using the Wi-Fi to determine where and when people have come into contact with each other.
  • Monitoring patient, staff and visitor compliance with wayfinding and navigation through the hospital.
  • Providing real-time insights into areas with high density and generating alerts to security or third-party systems.
  • Delivering targeted Wi-Fi captive portals that provide real-time information about their visit – reminding people of their responsibilities around hand hygiene and when to avoid going onsite.
  • Evaluating the impact on patient numbers when adjusting operating hours for clinics and other services.
  • Giving regular updates to staff as they enter the campus – via a text or email reminding them of the latest guidelines.
  • Delivering indoor mapping to visitors, staff and patients with accurate turn by turn guidance

All this functionality is powered by Cisco DNA Spaces, the cloud-based digitisation platform., and can be leveraged without any reconfiguration of the devices connecting to your network. Whether it’s corporate users or those on NHS Wi-Fi, they will connect as usual.

If you would like to learn more about how you can leverage your network technology during Covid, join our webinar where we will talk through specific use cases and applications. The webinar recording is available here.