Canton Mercy Medical Center first deployed Wi-Fi in 2005 and the wireless network is now mission-critical. It is used for clinical access, administrative access, voice communications, and supports a broad array of biomedical devices, data capture equipment and supporting applications. Mobile devices and wireless-enabled equipment from many different manufacturers are being added to the environment, each bringing unique connectivity challenges to the Wi-Fi team.
The team were aware that voice call quality was inadequate, and doctors and staff complained of poor performance when accessing clinical applications and data from their mobile devices. Hospital buildings are notoriously hostile environments for wireless connectivity, and so the team had to obtain the real-time performance data needed to isolate and troubleshoot persistent Wi-Fi connectivity issues.