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Meru survey of healthcare leaders shows while Wi-Fi adoption increases, technology integration is in early stages

Announcement posted by Wavelink 14 Mar 2013

Application performance, capacity and security are still concerns
March 5, 2013 – Meru Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:MERU), a leader in virtualised wireless LAN solutions, has released the results from a February 2013 survey of healthcare IT leaders on their Wi-Fi uses and needs. The survey, conducted annually, revealed three significant patterns.

Wi-Fi enabled medical device adoption lags other uses of Wi-Fi in hospital
While 85 per cent of hospitals use computers on wheels (CoW/WoW) and 73 per cent allow patients and visitors to access Wi-Fi, only 43 per cent of hospitals are using Life-Critical technologies such as smart pumps or telemetry on Wi-Fi. This low adoption of Life-Critical technology is especially interesting given that 77 per cent have some major concern with their WLAN infrastructure.

Of those with concerns, 55 per cent say that they regard performance, capacity or guaranteeing performance for critical applications, while for 29 per cent the major concern is security. More than a third of respondents are constraining their use of Wi-Fi due to limitations in reliability and performance. Fifty-seven per cent of those running life-critical applications deploy a separate network to run those applications.

Mobile computing adoption is primarily focused on EMR/EHR
Despite only 40 per cent of hospitals claiming Wi-Fi deployment across 100 per cent of their campuses, they continue to deploy additional mobile healthcare devices to clinicians. Eighty-five per cent currently have CoW/WoW and 56 per cent of the respondents indicated that more than a quarter of the work currently being done on CoW/WoW would shift to smartphones and tablets within three years.

Seventy-nine per cent of respondents indicated that they allow clinicians to bring their own mobile devices (BYOD) into hospitals and use them while on the job. Eighty five per cent responded that Wi-Fi is important for “Meaningful Use.” With the focus on “Meaningful Use”, it is not surprising that 49 per cent of respondents support EMR/CPOE on tablets or smartphones.

Technology integration is still in early stages
Only seven per cent of hospitals have integrated alarms with mobility devices used by clinicians and 37 per cent of respondents are using Wi-Fi for nurse call systems. Integration of such technologies can assist hospitals in responding quickly to patient’s needs.

“The results of this survey align closely with what we heard from hospital CIOs while developing Meru’s UCN,” said Kamal Anand, senior vice president and general manager of the healthcare business unit at Meru. “Meru is intently focused on collaborating closely with life-critical medical device vendors and mission-critical solution vendors to foster much-needed integration required for modern healthcare delivery.”

For a copy of a presentation outlining the results of all of the survey results, visit the Meru web site here: http://bit.ly/12hw9XQ

To read more about Meru in healthcare, visit the Meru web site for the following materials:

About Meru Networks
Meru Networks (NASDAQ: MERU) designs, develops, and distributes virtualised wireless LAN solutions that provide enterprises with the performance, reliability, predictability and operational simplicity of a wired network with the advantages of mobility. Meru Networks eliminates the deficiencies of multichannel, client-controlled architectures with its innovative, single-channel, virtualised network architecture that easily handles device density and diversity. Meru wireless LAN solutions are deployed in major vertical industries including Fortune 500 businesses, education, hospitality, healthcare and retail supply chain. Founded in 2002, Meru is headquartered in Sunnyvale, Calif., with operations in North America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia Pacific. Visit www.merunetworks.com or call (408) 215-5300.