"Wireless devices are the number one means of communication today," said Kelley Carr, president of the Custom Solutions Group of Manchester, N.H.-based CSI, which specializes in the design and implementation of in-building wireless solutions. Carr spoke at a workshop at the Mobile Health Expo at Caesar's Palace Tuesday.

Nonetheless, Carr cited a recent survey that had asked hospitals: "Do you have a problem with cell phone coverage in your building"

Eighty-seven percent of respondents said yes.

That's just one of the reasons hospitals should be thinking hard about setting up a wireless infrastructure, Carr said, as he laid out the challenges and opportunities of implementing an in-building wireless system.

There are four primary applications for wireless inside healthcare facility, Carr said: cellular, public safety networks, wireless LAN and telemetry.

All of them start with one simple truth: "when you put an in-building wireless system in, you've got to wire it."
And dealing with that "fairly substantial cabling system" means that "the number of people you need to work with gets larger and larger as you bring in more applications and bring in more carriers," said Carr.

Hospitals should be prepared to involve their IT department, communications department, facilities management, and security team – among other stakeholders. "There are a lot of different people you need to include."

"Cellular stuff is pretty easy," Carr said. "But in a healthcare facility it gets a bit harder when you get into wireless LAN."

Still, a hospital "can get creative with its design and technical approach."

But when choosing a vendor, "from a cellular perspective you want to make sure the company has relationships with service providers and is approved by them," Carr stressed. Indeed, it's "very important that you engage the wireless service providers very early in the process."

Clearly, there are payoffs for the effort – and expense. (Carr, who noted that implementation costs generally run between $0.50 and $1.50 per square foot, depending on the complexity of the installation, explored some different funding mechanisms – and pointed out that oftentimes carriers will take on some of the cost.)

"Our customers' primary goal is to look for efficiencies through wireless technology," he said. "They want to decrease their reaction time. Doctors want to be able to respond to patient needs. They don't want to have to go back to their office to deal with patient e-mails and calls."

There are competitive advantages. It "brings the hospital to another level, allowing it to hire more doctors – and keep more doctors and nurses because they have the means to make them as efficient as can be."

There are insurance savings, too, said Carr, who noted that "you can see some hard ROI on your investment" relatively early on.

It enables hospitals to be more flexible from an IT standpoint and more amenable to future technology adoption.

It allows for more improved security and public safety, and could potentially minimize adverse PR issues.

And, of course, it simply makes the facility more wireless friendly for patients and family. And as more and more "green" hospitals are built, for instance  – with the materials used to keep climate control and energy inside simultaneously keeping wireless signals out – that benefit becomes more and more appealing.

Because wireless is ubiquitous nowadays, says Carr. "It's the norm...Consumers are demanding that no matter where they go they get coverage."