Government IT services contractor Harris Corp. has won a two-year, $19 million contract to install secure wireless infrastructure at 26 Department of Veterans Affairs hospitals, the company announced Tuesday.

Melbourne, Fla.-based Harris will design, install, validate and provide employee training for Cisco Systems 802.11g routers and access points at the 26 facilities, Wayne Lucernoni, vice president and general manager of Harris' healthcare IT business tells MobiHealthNews. "It's very standard wireless infrastructure," he says.

The infrastructure will support data, voice, video and real-time location services for the VA, which has been rapidly embracing mobile technology both inside and outside its hundreds of hospitals and clinics. Though the Harris contract only covers 26 of the VA's 152 medical centers Harris calls this project "among the largest wireless deployments in the world." In a statement, Harris Healthcare Solutions President Jim Traficant calls the technology "a crucial element in ensuring those who serve our nation's veterans have access to mission-essential data where and when they need it."

Lucernoni says that this is just the first of several planned awards that will update the wireless technology at 111 VA hospitals. The department, which also operates 807 outpatient clinics, has not formally solicited bidding on further contracts just yet.

While the contract does run for two years, Lucernoni says Harris will not need that much time to get the system up and running. "We are working with the VA to deliver this in an accelerated fashion," he says.