Parkland Health System raises coverage

Summary

Challenge
• Single-level 43,000 square feet with 60 exam rooms
• New construction material and numerous hallways, offices and wall partitions prevented weak outdoor signal from penetrating

Solution
• CEL-FI QUATRA

Results
• Patients and staff can receive incoming texts and calls
• Patients are able to check social media and complete other tasks
• Affordable, reliable indoor cellular signal solution

The Challenge

The Parkland Health and Hospital System sees approximately 3,700 patients each day across its entire campus. As the Dallas community’s public health system and one of the country’s largest public hospital systems, Parkland is committed not only to the well-being of its community, but to the experience of every patient who walks through the door.

“In our line of work, wait times can sometimes be longer than we’d like,” explains Tom Stanfield, New Facilities Technology Integrator, Parkland Health and Hospital System. “Many patients use their phones to pass the time – whether it’s to check their social media or access their patient records on MyChart in preparation for their appointment.”

For example, patients may use the lab services at the Hatcher Station Health Clinic prior to seeing their doctor. They can then view their test results on the MyChart application which runs over a protected network before their appointment.

But poor outdoor signal from two nearby cellular towers, combined with the building’s newer construction materials and the layout of the facility, made it difficult to get and maintain a strong indoor cellular signal. Patients and staff alike were unable to communicate externally, whether it was to call for a ride-sharing service or to let their spouse know they’d be working late. Likewise, they were unable to receive incoming texts or calls from family or colleagues.

The Solution

Parkland invited bids to solve its indoor cellular coverage challenges. PWR Wireless, a local engineering services and consulting firm, responded. The company had worked on a separate project for Parkland, and Stanfield was impressed with the service provided by Paul Rice, founder and president of PWR Wireless.

“Paul is very knowledgeable and customer-oriented,” says Stanfield. “He proposed a cost-effective, quality product that was simply better than the competing solutions, and also came with remote monitoring capabilities which was a unique differentiator.”

The solution was the CEL-FI QUATRA active DAS hybrid from Nextivity, which provides coverage for all four major carriers; and the CEL-FI WAVE remote monitoring and management system.

The Results

“We chose CEL-FI QUATRA because we are very impressed with how the product works. It is readily available and easy to commission versus a standard BDA or a base station DAS that requires months of contract negotiation,” says Rice. “We were able to install the system in one weekend in a 43,000 ft2 building with no disruption at all.”

Because the two nearby towers could not provide strong-enough signals, Rice tapped the signal from a cellular tower three miles away. He used a CEL-FI high isolation Yagi antenna to secure a donor signal for two of the four carriers, and a Ventaf antenna for the other two. Using CEL-FI WAVE, Rice was able to determine the optimal placement for the network and coverage units, which were strategically located throughout the clinic to help provide strong coverage for all four carriers.

“CEL-FI WAVE is much easier to use than a spectrum analyzer,” explains Rice. “It locks on to a particular channel based on signal-to-noise ratio. The better the signal-to-noise ratio, the better the system is going to work, so it was necessary to get a high signal-to-noise ratio. CEL-FI WAVE allowed us to do just that.”

PWR Wireless completed the installation over the course of one weekend, with a team of two installers. They ran the cables through drop ceilings. The solution was transparent to the staff and patients, because the units looked similar to the existing Wi-Fi access points throughout the clinic.

  • High-quality solution for the middleprise
  • Supports multi-carrier 3G/4G/LTE voice and data
  • Carrier-approved and unconditionally network safe
  • Can be monitored and managed using CEL-FI WAVE

Contact us today to help with your Cellular Coverage Problems

This CEL-FI installation was undertaken by our partners, in which CEL-FI has a global footprint in almost 100 countries. For a referral to a local expert in your area, please contact us via phone or email.

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