News
Manchester midwives get secure remote access to maternity records
through RAPs
11 March 2010
The University Hospital of South Manchester NHS Foundation
Trust (UHSM) has equipped its community midwives with remote access
points (RAPs) from Aruba Networks to provide secure remote access to
maternity records during their visits to expectant mothers.
Access to the records helps midwives assess the status and health of
expectant mothers, improving the delivery process and post-delivery care
of both mother and baby.
UHSM is a major acute teaching hospital trust with services provided
at both the Withington and Wythenshawe Community Hospitals, with the
latter providing special antenatal services at a dedicated on-site
clinic. The challenge faced by UHSM was how to provide midwives with
up-to-date hospital records when they met with expectant mothers off
site, such as at regional Sure Start Children’s Centres or charity-owned
offices throughout the South Manchester area. Access to patient records
is tightly regulated in the UK and many other countries, and strict
adherence to privacy and security regulations is compulsory.
Aruba’s virtual branch network (VBN) technology overcomes this
challenge by securely extending UHSM’s patient record network off site.
Midwives are provided with inexpensive RAPs which provide secure,
authenticated remote access to UHSM’s data centre. Controllers in the
data centre handle all VBN-related configuration, management, and
security tasks. Centralising these services in the controllers
simplifies the design and installation of the RAPs.
By enabling midwives to work remotely with the same secure access to
the healthcare network as they would have in the hospital, VBN allows
them to remotely access patient records while adhering to government
privacy and security regulations.
“VBN provides visiting midwives with instant and encrypted access to
medical records, appointment booking systems, and any other information
held on the Trust’s network to which they have been granted access,”
said Ray Burdge, IT Infrastructure Manager at UHSM.
“The system is exceptionally easy to use as there are no
user-adjusted software or hardware controls. Instead the RAPs
automatically connect to USHM’s central network and all security
policies are implemented and managed by the Trust’s own IT team. We now
have the security of a virtual private network without its attendant
cost or complexity. Our community midwives get instant secure access to
maternity records, while expectant mums know that their midwife will
have full access to their most current records regardless of where the
consultation takes place.”
UHSM originally installed an Aruba wireless LAN in 2007 to support
mobile clinical workstations. Following successful deployment of the
workstations, the Trust added new applications to the Wi-Fi network
including picture archiving communication systems (PACs), pharmacy
ward-based stock control and ordering, and computers on wheels (COWs).
The new VBN application is the first to extend the network outside of
the Trust’s own facilities.
“Sound healthcare should originate in the places where we work and
live, and UHSM has a highly successful formula for delivering community
health services by leveraging its considerable IT infrastructure,” said
Bob Vickers, Aruba’s UK sales director. “VBN allows resources originally
intended for in-house use to be securely extended into the community,
and patients benefit greatly as a result. They receive individualised,
quality care that is economically delivered. This is a model programme
and one that will no doubt be widely emulated.”
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