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Wireless Solutions for Healthcare
Specialized Programs for Hospitals

Whether you're a biomedical engineer, facilities manager, or IT professional, you have a stake in ensuring the safe and effective use of wireless technologies throughout your hospital. The issues of electromagnetic interference and electromagnetic compatibility (EMI / EMC) can arise in every corner of your complex. Comsearch understands the complicated issues of EMI / EMC in hospital environments and can help manage these issues through our broad suite of targeted wireless services.

Identifying and troubleshooting interference problems and providing and implementing cost-effective solutions is critical to the integration and implementation of an effective wireless plan. For three decades Comsearch has been helping businesses design and manage their wireless environments. For the healthcare market, we can help design and install building-wide cell phone systems that consider the medical device interference implications while still permitting use of the phones. We can help manage your rooftop to both mitigate interference concerns, and develop a potential revenue stream by leasing space for telecommunications systems. We can also maintain your FCC licenses and ensure that they are properly filed and renewed - a process that can be tedious and time consuming. We invite you to fully examine how Comsearch can partner with you to manage the wireless explosion in your hospital.

Contact us for more information about our specialized programs.

Wireless Planning

Proper design and use of wireless technologies requires detailed planning and hospital-wide coordination. Comsearch can ensure the successful deployment, installation, and troubleshooting of wireless systems for all wireless stakeholders throughout the hospital. What is your hospital's cell phone policy? Have you considered distributed wireless systems to promote more efficient and widespread use of wireless technologies? Working with all wireless stakeholders in your healthcare facility, Comsearch will develop plans that consider current and future implications of wireless technologies and form factors. We consider issues not just within the hospital walls, but on the roof, in close-by areas such as the ED ambulance drive-up and loading docks, and in the general vicinity of the hospital building. Examples of our wireless planning services are:

• Help establish wireless policies
• Work with inter-department wireless stakeholders to coordinate wireless deployment strategies
• Develop plans to harmonize the use of wireless frequencies and systems throughout the hospital
• Develop and implement a pro-active interference management program
• Inform or develop technology visions
• Inform or develop cell phone policies
• Develop RF device / asset database
• Develop guidelines for managing relationships with wireless equipment vendors and service providers

Interference Analysis and Resolution

Has your telemetry system ever gone down due to interference from a fluorescent light ballast? Did you know that microwave ovens can cause problems with your WLAN? Are there any broadcast stations near your facility? All of these are documented causes of RF interference in hospitals. Harmful interference in a hospital can come from a host of sources, both inside and outside the hospital itself. X-ray machines, MRI, CAT scan, telemetry, paging, telephone, wireless PBX, walkie-talkies, aviation radios, security systems, and building monitoring systems are just some of the electromagnetic devices that are abundant in the hospital environment. In addition, there can be several wireless LAN's throughout the hospital providing wireless networking for bedside care delivery, patient monitoring, and computer systems. Outside the hospital there can also be television, land mobile, and paging systems on the roof or otherwise nearby. All these systems and devices generate their own complex RF signatures that can cause interference, but most importantly - put your patients at risk.

Interference can occur in every corner of the hospital environment. If you are currently experiencing interference, or even if you have experienced interference in the past, Comsearch can help you identify the sources, and develop a plan to fix the problems. Through a combination of signal measurements and analysis, we can provide you with a set of solutions that can virtually ensure that your hospital remains interference-free through our two-step process:

• Site Audit - We will conduct measurements throughout the hospital to characterize the RF environment inside the building. We will consider those devices transmitting both inside and outside the hospital. In addition, we will develop a device inventory that can be used to keep track of both radiating and susceptible equipment. Through the results of these efforts Comsearch will construct a database depicting RF energy by band throughout the hospital.
  
  
• Analysis and Resolution - We will analyze the results of the Site Audit and determine the interference sources. Once we know the cause of the interference, we can then recommend the appropriate and cost-effective solutions and, in many cases, help to implement the corrective action.

Wireless Medical Telemetry Service (WMTS)

In response to growing concerns about interference resulting from new digitial television transmitters, low power television transmitters, and greater use of Private Land Mobile Radio equipment, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has done the following:

• Established the Wireless Medical Telemetry Service (WMTS), dedicating bands of frequencies to promote interference-free operation of medical telemetry systems. The WMTS bands are 608-614 MHz, 1395-1400 MHz and 1427-1432 MHz;
• Appointed ASHE as the Frequency Coordinator for the WMTS bands;
• Mandated that all transmitters operating in the WMTS bands must be registered with ASHE to ensure interference-free operation.

ASHE has selected Comsearch as their technical partner in providing frequency coordination services in the WMTS bands. Comsearch provides a broad range of services to ASHE and its members including development of a WMTS device database and device registration capabilities.

Regulatory Support

The role of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) cannot be overlooked as hospitals deploy wireless technologies. The FCC is constantly issuing rulemakings that can impact hospitals both directly and indirectly. In addition, the FDA's Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH) plays a critical role in electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) issues in a hospital. Comsearch understands the activities of these regulatory bodies and their impact upon your hospital. Through our regulatory services, we can lift the burden of these issues and streamline your licensing process by:

• Monitoring and interpreting FCC rulemakings
• Distilling and disseminating regulatory information
• Ensuring compliance with FDA / CRDH and AAMI TIR guidelines
• Maintaining FCC licenses
• Ensuring compliance with FCC, OSHA, and ANSI guidelines on radiation hazard exposure

Building / Rooftop Telecom Management

Leasing rooftop space to telecommunication providers can become an effective revenue stream for hospitals. Comsearch's suite of services under our Real Estate Telecom Site Management offerings can help determine the impact of other telecommunications equipment on your wireless infrastructure and release the burden of managing and negotiating your valuable real estate through:

• Rooftop Management - Optimize rooftop space and lease revenue potential, while minimizing conflicts due to zoning / aesthetics, installation / construction, and interference.
  
  
• Tenant Assistance - Identify tenant telecom requirements, negotiate tenant solutions on behalf of facility management and provide system design and installation services.
  
  
• Program Management - Manage existing infrastructure, and evaluate new systems and their overall impact to the hospital. Oversee installation of new tenant systems and help manage the existing riser and telecom equipment space.
  
  
• Interference Resolution - Analyze your wireless infrastructure for interference from harmonic emissions, intermodulation, and spurious emissions as well as non-standard sources of interference such as microwave ovens, intrusion alarms, computers, and ignition systems.
  
  

Training

Do you need to learn more about wireless technologies and their impact on healthcare? Want to know more about electromagnetic compatibility issues in the hospital. Need more information on interference and its impact on your systems? What is Radiation Hazard and how does it affect you? Do you know how to use your spectrum analyzer to its maximum potential?

Comsearch has developed a training curriculum specifically targeted to help answer these questions and others. We not only help keep you abreast of developments in wireless technology, we can help you determine their impact upon your hospital.

Our courses include:

• RF Issues for Biomedical and Clinical Engineers
• Electromagnetic Interference & Electromagnetic Compatibility Issues in the Hospital
• Wireless for Healthcare

We can conduct our courses at your hospital or in your local area. Please contact us for the latest course catalog and schedule.

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