|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Nottingham City Hospital is one of the largest acute teaching hospitals in the UK’s East Midlands, with a staff of more than 5,000. It offers a wide range of clinical services to the population of Nottingham and to patients from further afield.
Nottingham City Hospital has to work hard to keep pace with increasing demand for healthcare services. As part of its drive to improve efficiency, it identified a need to transmit X-ray, scanner and ultrasound images across its local-area network (LAN). This would permit consultants, whose offices are dispersed across the entire hospital site, to view images on their screens rather than wait for copies to be delivered on paper. However, the existing network—which was stretched to its limits—did not provide enough bandwidth. The hospital therefore decided to install a new 3,500-node Gigabit Ethernet network.
“We wanted to implement a network that people could use to transmit whatever they wanted, at any time of day or night,” said network manager Mike Ross, Nottingham City Hospital.
» Return to top
In the face of competition from 3Com, Cisco and Intel, the hospital chose to base its new network on switches from Procurve Networking.
“HP’s reputation for reliability was an important factor in our choice, but the most striking thing about the Procurve switches was their excellent price/performance. This translated into a low initial investment, which was backed up by minimal maintenance costs,“ commented Ross.
Having confirmed the reliability and ease-of-installation of the ProCurve switches in a pilot exercise, the hospital went ahead with a full implementation. It has installed a single routing switch and over 100 Layer 2 switches. HP OpenView and HP Toptools are used to manage the network. Procurve Networking provided technical advice in the early stages, with Specialist Computer Centres and Xpert Systems Limited supplying the hardware and software, but implementation was the responsibility of an internal team.
» Return to top
The new network provides a tenfold increase in bandwidth, with the result that extremely large data files containing moving images can be sent anywhere on the site. This enables consultants and others to work more efficiently.
“Users are very happy with the network. The cardiac surgery group is buying an extra scanner because it is able to get through its workload much faster. This should help it meet government targets for reduced patient waiting times,” said Ross.
Because faulty parts are replaced by HP at no cost, the hospital’s annual maintenance budget has been cut by £10,000 in the first year and will continue to reduce. The network has also proved to be extremely reliable.
“Over the past two years we have had no downtime and no major faults. Bearing in mind that we are growing the network all the time, this is a very notable achievement. Personally, I am very impressed with the HP switches,” concluded Ross.
» Return to top
- Keep pace with demand for more healthcare services
- Support effective round-the-clock working with an always-on network
- Implement higher-bandwidth network capable of transmitting X-ray, scanning and ultrasound images
» Return to top
- Install new 3,500-node network based on ProCurve Networking by HP switches
- Source network hardware and software from two HP partners – Specialist Computer Centres and Xpert Systems Limited
- Use internal team to implement network solution
» Return to top
- Tenfold increase in bandwidth permits scanning data to be transmitted quickly to any location on the site
- Cardiac surgery group is processing its workload more quickly, thus improving its chances of meeting government targets for reduced waiting times
- Annual maintenance budget has been cut by £10,000 and continue to reduce
- No downtime and no major faults over a two-year period
» Return to top
- Price/performance of switch technology
- Minimal maintenance costs
- Large, stable company with a good reputation
» Return to top
Industry sector: Healthcare
Name: Nottingham City Hospital NHS Trust
Headquarters: Nottingham, UK
Founded: 1903
Telephone: +44 115 969 1169
Number of employees: 5,000v
Annual revenues: £187 million (EUR 300 million approx.)
» Return to top
Company: Specialist Computer Centres
Headquarters: Birmingham, UK
Founded: 1975
Telephone: +44 121 766 2690
Number of employees: 4,000
Annual revenues: £1.2 billion (EUR 2 billion approx.)
Business: Value-added reseller, specialising in corporate and public sector systems
Products: HP, Compaq, IBM, Toshiba systems
Company: Xpert Systems Limited
Headquarters: Warrington, UK
founded: 1984
Telephone: +44 1642 751000
Number of employees: 240
Business: Provider of information and communications technology services
» Return to top
Hardware
- 3,500-node gigabit Ethernet network
- ProCurve Routing Switch 9304m
- 2 x ProCurve Switch 4108gl
- 20 x ProCurve Switch 4000m
- 55 x ProCurve Switch 2524
- 13 x ProCurve Switch 2424
- 11 x ProCurve Switch 224
- HP OpenView
- HP TopTools
- 14 Unix servers (Siemens, Sun, IBM)
- 56 Windows NT and Windows 2000 servers
- 2 Linux servers
- Oracle8 database
- Specialist medical applications
- PC clients
- Megastream link with University Hospital Nottingham for data-sharing
- Technical advice from ProCurve Networking by HP
- Networking solution supplied by Specialist Computer Centres
- Additional hardware and software from Xpert Systems Limited
Software
HP services
-
Lifetime warranty with next-business-day advance replacement (available in most countries) on most products for as long as the customer owns it *
-
Telephone support available during normal business hours
- Technical product support available via e-mail
- Comprehensive network design and configuration services offered at no extra charge
- The ProCurve Networking Routing Switch 9300m series and Secure Access 700wl series have a one-
year warranty with extensions available.
» Return to top
When you are ready to explore the benefits a ProCurve Networking solution can offer you, call HP at 1-800-975-7682.
To learn more about ProCurve Networking's Adaptive EDGE Architecture™ solutions, visit our home page.
Purchase: In the US, HP business solutions, products, and supplies can be purchased at your local HP partner, or bought directly from HP either online or by calling 800-613-2222.
Finance: HP finance plans provide all the benefits of new technology without the risk or cost of ownership. For details, call 888-999-4783.
Accessibility: HP is committed to providing products and services that are accessible to people with disabilities. For more information, please visit the HP Accessibility web site or call 888-259-5707.
» Return to top
|
| |
|
|
|
