Mission-Critical Verizon Ethernet Solutions for Health Care Providers

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1 executive brief: data networking Mission-Critical Verizon Ethernet Solutions for Health Care Providers Executive Summary Today, health care providers are faced with a wide range of issues from reducing costs and guaranteeing prescription accuracy to ensuring contract compliance for drug and medical supplies. To address these issues, health care providers are making a variety of information technology (IT) investments Electronic Patient Record (EPR) systems, Computerized Physician Order Entry (CPOE), Picture Archiving and Communications Systems (PACS), Practice Management applications, e-prescription tools, Electronic Medical Records (EMR), and supply chain applications that enforce contractual pricing. To enhance these investments and deliver more patient services and care and support the increased traffic demands of new applications, health care providers need resilient, flexible, high-bandwidth Ethernet networking solutions. Ethernet metro area networks (MANs) and wide area networks (WANs) can merge voice and data transport and expand the impact of medical investments by: Providing better patient care by accelerating medical care delivery Increasing care delivery efficiency by networking PACS and EMR systems across hospitals Minimizing insurance settlement issues, maximizing reimbursement levels, and shrinking turnaround time by increasing the accuracy of record keeping Reducing costs by improving contract compliance throughout the supply chain Enhancing physicians decision-making capabilities by providing instantaneous, online access to patient data and test results Increasing productivity by providing converged networks for collaboration and messaging Network Enabled by Alcatel-Lucent A Verizon Executive Brief on how Ethernet Solutions can: Meet health care enterprise network requirements Improve patient satisfication Increase availability of patient data, while preserving patient privacy Help reduce capital and operational costs Match the growth needs of health care enterprises By working closely with health care providers, Verizon has developed reliable Ethernet solutions that can enable health care executives to maximize their IT investments and automate clinical processes and supply chains. Verizon delivers Ethernet solutions, including Ethernet Private Line (EPL), Ethernet Virtual Private Line (EVPL), Ethernet LAN (E-LAN) and Dedicated SONET Ring (DSR), which provide consistent reliable transport for health care applications. As a result, physicians, nurses, surgeons, radiologists, suppliers, and administrators can better address industry challenges and provide faster, higher quality medical care. Highest customer satisfication with business high end data service providers, two years in a row Because Verizon is committed to customer success, Verizon was ranked highest in customer satisfaction as a high-end business data service provider two years in a row by J.D. Power and Associates. Enabled by Alcatel-Lucent, Verizon Ethernet solutions meet high standards for network design and engineering, survivability, scalability, security, interoperability, and adaptability that allow health care providers to enhance patient care. Page 1 of 7

2 Health Care Provider Requirements Health care providers have recently deployed IT investments to improve patient care, automate clinical and reimbursement processes, and protect critical data to comply with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). These applications have made Ethernet transport, including local area networks (LANs), MANs and WANs, essential to delivering highquality patient care. Based on the requirements for high-bandwidth transport, health care IT managers have made Ethernet solutions a centerpiece of health care networking. These Ethernet solutions provide efficient transport across LANs, MANs and WANs, facilitate migration from legacy to Ethernet services, and promote the growth of new bandwidth-flexible networks. Essentially, these Ethernet solutions provide the backbone for health care organizations to: Lower operating, administration, and maintenance costs. The growing use of PACS and other emerging medical applications that offer cost-saving benefits requires a scalable, yet easyto-operate network across multiple locations. Support new applications. The growth of health care applications, such as CPOE, EMR systems, and supply chain tools, requires the ability to adjust bandwidth through software as application traffic increases. Create common connectivity to public Internet protocol (IP) networks and private backbones. Because medical professionals rely on reliable and high-speed access to the latest information from publicly accessible web services at leading government, university, and private institutions, health care network administrators need a simplified, enterprise network for both private and public IP networking. Achieve convergence for voice, data, and unified collaboration. To support simultaneous use of IP telephony, data, and unified IP collaboration tools that deliver web, audio, and video conferencing services over a common infrastructure, health care institutions require strong service level agreements (SLAs). Provide storage capabilities. Because new regulations require a robust, protected infrastructure for delivery and storage of patient records, health care providers need support for native Ethernet and native storage protocols for connectivity to disaster recovery and back-up data centers. Ethernet Solutions Meet Network and Operating Requirements Verizon and Alcatel-Lucent have been developing Ethernet solutions for many years and both actively support the Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF) specification process. This has led to multiple solution advancements and deployment of Ethernet services that can now meet the stringent needs of health care IT managers. Today, Verizon delivers Ethernet solutions that provide: Ease-of-use to simplify network operations, administration, management and provisioning Burstable connections with the ability to manage short periods of high usage Granular bandwidth in 1 Mbps increments with capacity up to 10 Gbps Flexibility to allow users to network their institutions without the complexity of legacy services Reliability to help ensure that critical applications continue to operate 24x7x365 Support for multiple applications, from content delivery and Internet access to storage, IP telephony, and unified collaboration Cost effectiveness by supporting MEF-recommended service types, including EPL, EVPL, and E-LAN, as well as managed SONET ring solutions and dedicated wavelength services to create cost-optimal, health care network deployments Verizon Ethernet Solutions Enabled by Alcatel-Lucent Ethernet Private Line (EPL). Extends enterprise LANs in native Ethernet format to the wide area over a scalable, highly-reliable, carrier-class network. Enhanced Dedicated SONET Ring (DSR). A customerdedicated SONET ring that features Gigabit Ethernet, private line and, in the future, storage networking interfaces. Dedicated Wavelength Service (DWS). A customer-dedicated ring that extends enterprise LANs in native Ethernet format over dense wave division multiplexing (DWDM), offering up to 10 Gbps per wavelength for ultra-high bandwidth applications. Switched Ethernet. 1 Extends enterprise LANs in native Ethernet format to the wide area either as a multi-point Ethernet LAN (E-LAN) service or pointto-point, Ethernet virtual private line (EVPL) service with SLAs. Reliable, network-based Ethernet solutions offer a network infrastructure for connecting city-center, regional, and municipal hospitals, medical diagnostic centers, physician offices, and other health care facilities. These solutions help health care IT administrators to: Improve patient care and satisfaction Increase availability of patient data, while maintaining privacy Reduce capital expenditures and operating costs Accommodate growth of patient services Page 2 of 7

3 To ensure consistent, highly-capable Ethernet solutions, Verizon works closely with health care providers to understand their on-going operating and networking needs. Verizon also provides network infrastructure solutions, design, engineering, and maintenance services. In this way, Verizon Ethernet solutions minimize potential network disruptions associated with new infrastructure deployments and enable hospitals and other health care institutions to deliver non-stop medical services, computing resources, and patient care applications. Case Study: Providing Secure, Reliable Critical Care A leading Verizon health system operator needed a reliable method for real-time access to patient records across hospital facilities in multiple city centers. The operator s aim was to improve patient care and support HIPAA mandates by deploying a reliable and secure network connecting all city hospitals. Verizon collaborated with the health care system provider to design and install a DSR as a backbone. EPL linked high-traffic locations, while switched Ethernet service served to interconnect LANs. The customer realized dramatic increases in network resiliency, capacity and scalability. With the assistance of Verizon, the health administrator met HIPAA data security requirements, reduced patient length of stays and increased patient recovery rates enhancing the overall delivery of patient care. Ethernet Solutions Improve Patient Care and Satisfaction Verizon Ethernet solutions facilitate the transport of essential patient information, such as computed tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans, over a reliable, flexible, high-bandwidth WAN. For example, the combination of a WAN and a PACS that archives CT, MRI, X-ray, nuclear medicine and other images allows a remote, primary physician to view scans soon after they are taken enabling faster diagnosis and rapid delivery of appropriate care. Verizon Ethernet solutions enhance the high-speed transport of information, help physicians make more accurate diagnoses, shorten hospital stays and get patients back to their families sooner. Through Verizon Ethernet solutions, tasks that previously required several hours now take minutes. Patients spend less time in hospitals, health care providers can treat more patients and institutions can reduce costs related to insurance settlements. To meet this need for high-speed transport of information, health care providers need a reliable, lowlatency, high-bandwidth network that can accommodate growth in traffic, users, and locations. Enabled by Alcatel-Lucent, Verizon delivers Ethernet solutions that can provide the following capabilities: DSR, delivered on Alcatel-Lucent s MEF Carrier Ethernet Certified Metropolis DMX multiservice provisioning platform (MSPP) family can accommodate ring capacity of up to OC-192, as well as fractional and full Gigabit Ethernet services. In the future, switched Ethernet services will also be available on a DSR. EPL service, delivered over the Metropolis DMX family, provides Ethernet services at 10 Mbps, 100 Mbps, and 1 Gbps. Affiliate Hospital 100 Mbps EPL 100 Mbps EPL Affiliate Hospital Service Provider Central Office Verizon EDSR (OC-48/192) Data Center Primary Hospital Teaching Center Acute Care Center Verizon Ethernet solutions provide the resilient, high-bandwidth network that links multiple hospitals, medical, or office facilities, and data centers. Health care professionals can effectively scale their business while increasing patient care and keeping costs to a minimum. Page 3 of 7

4 DSR and EPL can interconnect medical centers, regional and city hospitals, affiliates, and other medical facilities together, as well as with private health care networks EPL provides granular bandwidth growth from 10 Mbps up to 1 Gbps, while DSR provider bandwidth growth from 50 Mbps to 1 Gbps. DSR and EPL are resilient services offering high reliability and restoration of less than 50 ms. Verizon can provision and monitor core networks to detect and fix problems before they become disruptive. Health care providers can build converged TDM and packet networks for voice, data, and video. A direct connection through Ethernet with firewalls, intrusion detection systems (IDS), and antivirus applications increases security across all sites. Verizon Ethernet solutions offer very high SLAs to guarantee bandwidth across the network. In addition to information-transport applications, health care providers have deployed communications tools, such as IP telephony, video, audio, and web conferencing. These tools require adequate SLAs to ensure the proper end-user experience. Verizon Ethernet solutions offer competitive SLAs to support bandwidth across the network. As a result, the health care institution can provide effective support for multiple applications across all locations promoting stronger collaboration among doctors, nurses, and other medical professionals. Ethernet Solutions Increase Availability of Patient Data Medical professionals depend on fast access to patient records for both emergency situations and routine care; therefore, medical records applications must be available 24x7x365. Because patient data is stored in network servers and often backed up in remote data centers its availability depends on resilient MAN/WAN transport. Verizon services enabled by Alcatel-Lucent, including DSR, DWS, and EPL, offer multiple methods of ensuring information will always be available: To provide health care professionals with constant, 24x7x365 access to patient records, DSR, EPL, and DWS offer restoration of less than 50 ms. DSR and EPL support fiber-path diversity to reduce service disruptions. DSR and EPL can connect to regional data centers and disaster-recovery facilities for IP-based asynchronous and synchronous replication with future support for Fiber Connectivity (FICON) and Fibre Channel. DWS offers reliable, long-range distance support and ultra-high bandwidth from 1 Gbps to 10 Gbps for regional and out-of-state locations. Verizon Ethernet services can interoperate efficiently with enterprise storage, networking, and mainframe equipment. Together these solutions offer high resiliency and flexibility in connecting back-up and disasterrecovery centers in regional or out-of-state locations to ensure patient records are always available. Ethernet Solutions Reduce Capital Expenditures and Operating Costs With high bandwidth and reliability, DSR, EPL, and DWS services from Verizon help health care providers reduce costs by: Concentrating patient record databases in fewer servers at data centers, minimizing support resources, and decreasing maintenance fees Shrinking supply chain costs by connecting primary and affiliate hospitals with teaching and acute care facilities to centralize orders, enforce supplier contracts for medical equipment, supplies and drugs, and maintain stock levels across all hospitals and facilities Page 4 of 7

5 Minimizing diagnostic time for patients and improving referral and admittance processes enabling higher utilization rates and occupancy levels in existing care facilities, lowering overall costs on a per-patient basis. Lowering IT management costs since Ethernet services do not require Ethernet protocol conversion, eliminating monitoring of network elements and the need for asynchronous transfer mode (ATM), Frame Relay, and private-line expertise. By improving patient care, lowering costs, and ensuring that patient records are always available, health care operators can deploy Verizon Ethernet solutions to address health care management issues. In general, Verizon Ethernet solutions provide a lower price per megabyte than traditional high bandwidth private line and Frame Relay or ATM services. In addition, health care providers can further identify cost saving opportunities by working with Verizon to evaluate an improved MAN/WAN transport solution. As a broad portfolio, Verizon Ethernet solutions help maximize financial and operating benefits for health care providers. By improving patient care, lowering costs, and ensuring that patient records are available, health care providers can deploy new networking architectures to address health care management issues and support the growing number of patients from an aging Baby Boomer population. These Ethernet solutions help deliver the productivity gains health care providers expect from converged networks. Multiple access facilities can be replaced through a common infrastructure, creating a simplified MAN/WAN for voice, data, and TDM services to promote the highest levels of patient satisfaction. Verizon Ethernet Solutions Match the Needs of Health Care Providers With an extensive optical multiplexer deployment 1,100 next-generation Add/Drop Multiplexers (ADM) nodes Verizon ensures that customer networks can be Ethernet-enabled on demand. In the past two years, Verizon has installed more than 250 DSR rings in networks across the finance, government, telecom service provider and manufacturing industries. According to the Yankee Group, Verizon has the breadth of Ethernet services and network design as well as the engineering and enterprise application support capabilities that is needed to address the networking needs of the health care industry. Combined with Alcatel-Lucent s networking solutions, which are designed to the highest level of survivability, absolute quality of service (QoS), and support for emerging standards, Verizon can offer hospitals, acute care centers, and other health care institutions very high performance Ethernet solutions for core network deployments. Carrier-grade Ethernet solutions available from Verizon include: 2 Ethernet and Optical Description Final Application Dedicated SONET Ring (DSR) Page 5 of 7 Supports Ethernet, DS1, OC-n, and storage protocols (planned) simultaneously in a customer specific SONET ring. Offers capacity from OC-3 up to OC-192 to accommodate traffic demands. Provides the highest level of survivability, flexible Ethernet bandwidth and cost-effective deployment. Available in Standard and Protected modes. Provides full-rate and incremental Ethernet connectivity at 50, 150, 300, 450, 600, and 1000 Mbps. Planned storage protocol transport for Fiber Channel and FICON. Enables health care delivery networks to link multiple facilities, including connecting to data centers, local, and interexchange carriers, and Internet service providers. Provides access to, EMR, CPOE, PACS medical imaging applications, patient records, amd supply chain applications.

6 Ethernet and Optical Description Final Application Dedicated SONET Ring (DSR) Suitable for converged network access for voice, data, and video with CO hand-off to other service providers. Interoperates with EPL and TDM services. Planned interoperability with Verizon IP-VPN and EVPL and support for multipoint E-LAN. Enabled by the MEF Carrier Ethernet Certified, Alcatel- Lucent Metropolis DMX family. Ethernet Private Line (EPL) Switched Ethernet (EVPL and E-LAN) Dedicated Wavelength Service (DWS) Deployed as a point-to-point service with a native Ethernet interface, offering bandwidth from 10 Mbps to 1 Gbps. Planned storage protocol transport for Fibre Channel and FICON using Alcatel- Lucent solutions. Available in Standard and Protected modes. Planned inoperability with Verizon Dedicated Internet Access Service (DIAS) Switched Ethernet, and IP-VPN. EPL services can be used to link DSR rings in different metro regions to create a seamless Ethernet network. Enabled by the MEF Carrier Ethernet Certified, Alcatel-Lucent Metropolis DMX family Deployed either as an E-LAN service or EVPL service with Ethernet interfaces and service level agreements, offering bandwidth from 1 Mbps to 1 Gbps. A standalone service with planned availability. Interoperates with Verizon IP-VPN. Switched Ethernet service on a DSR is scheduled in the near future. Offers ultra-high bandwidth at 10 GigE level to connect data centers and high traffic sites. Meets the needs of other specialized, bandwidthhungry applications, such as video transport. Supports Ethernet using DWDM. Enabled by Alcatel-Lucent Metropolis EON. Links affiliate hospitals, data centers, and remote sites that require high resiliency and bandwidth. Provides access to PACS medical imaging applications, patient records, and supply chain applications. Enables back-up and disaster recovery. Links medical centers and facilities as a replacement for ATM and Frame Relay connections. Implemented as a costefficent solution with near SONET-level resiliency. Provides ultra-high bandwidth links for core networks, offsite data centers storage of patient records, medical images, and other critical data. Enables back-up and disaster recovery. Page 6 of 7

7 The Verizon Advantage for Health Care Providers The success of a health care facility depends on reliable communications to connect doctors, nurses, researchers and other medical professionals. With a consistent, high level of service and stability, Verizon Ethernet solutions address the needs of health care providers in today s highpressure environment. In health care, an interruption in communications is an unacceptable blow to an organization s on-going operations; so health care providers need a partner that can enable networking infrastructures to provide a reliable backbone for patient care delivery. Verizon has the unique expertise to build this type of alliance: With more than 11.3 million fiber miles, 6,000 SONET rings and 12 years of Ethernet service experience, Verizon is a leading optical transport provider a reliable and innovative partner for enterprise converged metro, wide area, and long-haul networking. Verizon offers internetworking of Ethernet services, creating a seamless, end-to-end network, as well as service upgrades, including future connectivity to Verizon IP-VPN and DIAS services. Verizon networks are enabled by Alcatel-Lucent which has more than three decades of optical networking experience, including deploying the first SONET and DWDM networks. As a result, Verizon solutions offer health care providers the opportunity to: Increase the efficiency of their health care delivery network Reduce the chance of medical errors Minimize insurance settlement issues and improve reimbursement timelines Improve contract compliance across the supply chain Enhance preparation and decision-making Increase productivity and reduce costs with converged networks for clinical processes Visit our website at to learn more about Verizon Business s products suite. With the right solutions and expertise, Verizon delivers capabilities that meet the needs of health care providers, bringing consistency in service quality and performance and making doing business easier. Expectations are high from the support health care providers demand to the solutions they require. Verizon knows that, which is why it continues to provide an exceptional customer experience. Health care providers know that, which is why Verizon was ranked the Highest Customer Satisfaction with Business High-End Data Service Providers, Two Years in a Row. The never-ending dedication of Verizon to deploy new technologies and services makes customer s commitments priority number one. To learn more about Verizon Ethernet solutions, contact your Verizon representative or visit 1 This service may be enabled by Alcatel-Lucent in the near future.. 2 Interlata services are provided by Verizon Select Services Inc. This document is for planning purposes only, and is not intended to modify or supplement any Verizon and Alcatel-Lucent specifications or warranties relating to these products or services. The publication of information in this document does not imply freedom from patent or other protective rights of Verizon, Alcatel-Lucent, or others Verizon. All Rights Reserved. WP /07 The Verizon and Verizon Business names and logos and all other names, logos, and slogans identifying Verizon s products and services are trademarks and service marks or registered trademarks and service marks of Verizon Trademark Services LLC or its affiliates in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks and service marks are the property of their respective owners. Page 7 of 7