Case Study National Hospital Organization Chiba Medical Center National Hospital Organization Chiba Medical Center, in Chiba, Japan, selects an Allied Telesis network solution to build their new medical and information network.
Introduction In June 2010, the National Hospital Organization Chiba Medical Center was in need of a new network infrastructure. Having built a new hospital, they needed a network that would provide a solid infrastructure for both their electronic medical records and the management of supplies and accounts. An Allied Telesis solution was the answer. The result is a unified medical system, facilitating easy information sharing between staff, and the hospital can now provide simple and clear medical care explanations to patients. High reliability and future-proof scalability was achieved by a unified design that allows secure access to both the medical information system and the rest of the network. Customer Profile National Hospital Organization Chiba Medical Center Established: 1908 Location: Chiba-city, Chiba-prefecture, Japan Number of beds: 455 Number of diagnosis and treatment departments: 28 National Hospital Organization Chiba Medical Center provides treatment and care for cancer, as well as most other health issues. The center aims to provide the local population with friendly and reliable medical services. http://www.hosp.go.jp/~chiba/ 2 National Hospital Organization Chiba Medical Center alliedtelesis.com
The goal: paperless communication National Hospital Organization Chiba Medical Center, in Chiba city, Japan, was first established in 1908. It was then known as Chiba-Eiju Hospital. It changed its name to National Chiba Hospital in February, 1945. In April 2004, the hospital again changed its name, to National Hospital Organization Chiba Medical Center, which it is known as today. We had to check many documents that were delivered in the department s mailbox every day. Chiba Medical Center is certified as the region s premier cancer examination and treatment hospital, and is also recognized as the regional medical support hospital. As such, the center functions as the main hospital for the local community, providing advanced medical care. In June, 2010, the hospital s new building work was completed. Consisting of an 8-story structure and a 3-story structure, the total hospital area is now about 1.7 times larger. Building the new facilities also provided an opportunity to redesign the data network. The new Allied Telesis network provides a solid infrastructure for electronic medical records and the inventory and accounting system. It features a unified system which facilitates information sharing, and simplifies access to patient care records. The most important feature of the new network is the unification of the electronic medical records system with information systems such as Groupware and the Internet. Previously, for security, these systems were kept entirely separate. However, the new Allied Telesis network security technology allows these to be safely unified, meaning greater network efficiency at a lower cost. Although medical and operational data can be accessed from the same place, access is limited to only those with the appropriate rights. Prior to the new building, Chiba Medical Center did not use electronic medical records. The medical information system was mainly used for ordering and accounting. Internet and email access was limited to a few shared machines. Furthermore, prior to the redesign, communication of medical information had been achieved with paper - becoming a paperless environment was a key goal. Dr. Takashi Nakazato, Cardiovascular Department, Head of Medical Information Management, National Hospital Organization Chiba Medical Center The Allied Telesis solution has provided this paperless environment by creating a new, unified network for both the medical system and the operational information system. Doctors may now access patient records, check their emails, and search for documents on the Internet - all from terminals in their examination rooms. Dr. Nakazato explains the advantage of the unified Network, We can now check information from anywhere, which is so important for effective communication. And we can use the medical system and the information system from one terminal, which reduces our equipment costs. National Hospital Organization Chiba Medical Center 3
The new network design The hospital convened a network upgrade committee of doctors, nurses and staff, to consider the requirements for the new, unified hospital network. There were 2 main requirements: 1) Non-stop In the past, new equipment had been added to the network as it was required in a piecemeal fashion. As a consequence, there was a mixture of equipment from various vendors. This was problematic when there was a network issue as it could take a long time to resolve, which in turn affected medical service operation. The new network had to be able to provide constant access to electronic medical records, so there was a very strong requirement for a non-stop network structure, featuring high reliability and fast failover. 2) High-speed The old network was slow and problematic. The new network had to be able to support large amounts of data, particularly in the form of x-ray imaging. Previously x-ray images had been stored as physical slides. The move to using electronic imaging drove the requirement for a significant increase in network bandwidth. 3) Secure Hospital networks deal with a lot of sensitive data that must be kept private and secure. Chiba Medical Center s committee conducted a review to compare the products of several network vendors. Allied Telesis emerged as the best option. Dr. Nakazato says, I was aware of the excellent reputation that Allied Telesis products have from their use in other hospitals in Japan and world-wide, so we had no qualms about using them We managed the cost of our network redesign ourselves, and we were able to choose a reliable, future proof network. Mr. Tomoya Takahashi, Chief of Medical Information Management, Medical Information Management Division, National Hospital Organization Chiba Medical Center for our network. By using Allied Telesis products and organizing our network into two distinct yet unified areas, we now have exactly the network infrastructure and performance that we wanted. Frequently, when hospital networks are built, the network infrastructure is provided by the vendor of the electronic medical record system. In that case, the hospital is hands off with regard to the choice of network equipment. 4 National Hospital Organization Chiba Medical Center alliedtelesis.com
The result The new hospital network now has two SwitchBlade x908 Advanced Layer 3 Switches at its core, and an AT-x900-24XT stack as the server switch. All switches use Virtual Chassis Stacking (VCStackTM) to provide optimal resiliency. Path resiliency is provided with Link Aggregation to CentreCOM 9048XL switches1, which function as the access switches on each floor. Mr. Eiji Ito, of the RICHO Creative Service Company Ltd, which was in charge of network design, says: We divided the network load between the server switch, which exchanges a lot of data, and the Core switch, so the servers can be accessed separately from the core switch. This achieves a balanced network load, and guarantees the new network is reliable. RICOH Creative Service had experience with features such as VLAN and ACL, and Mr. Yoshikazu Arai, RICOH Creative Service, says, From there, we decided to build the medical network using Allied Telesis products. Mr. Tomoya Takahashi, Chief of Medical Information Management at Chiba Medical Center, says, There are about 500 workstations in the hospital, and setup and authorization can be complicated because each workstation s access authorities vary from system to system. Workstations are now authorized by centralized network authentication, so the hospital now enjoys enhanced security without the need for complex management of individual workstations. Achieving optimal network security Security was a major goal for the new network. VLANs and Access Control Lists (ACLs) were used to create a secure system, the separate parts of which only authorized users may access. For example, doctors can access electronic medical records via the medical system, and Groupware and the Internet via the information system. Non-medical staff can only access the information system. Internet access is via HOSPnet, the National Hospital Organization general information network system. Internet security is provided by a firewall within HOSPnet. SwitchBlade x908 set in the rack CentreCom 9048XL switches are available only in Japan 1 National Hospital Organization Chiba Medical Center 5
SBx908 Key solutions x600-48ts x600-48ts x900-24xt x900-24xt Router AR770S Servers HOSPnet Internet Optical Cable (Multi mode) UTP Cable (100M/Gigabit) Link Aggregation Products shown in this diagram are representative only and may differ from those actually used. 6 National Hospital Organization Chiba Medical Center alliedtelesis.com
Wireless LAN achieves greater efficiency As well as wired LAN, Chiba Medical Center also introduced wireless LAN. They used AT-TQ2403 wireless LAN access points all over the hospital to support efficient medical care. For example, nurses can now input data regarding a patient s temperature, blood pressure, and so on, into a mobile terminal right at the patient s bed side. Dr. Nakazato says This means we can work so much faster than when all these tasks were paper-based. In addition, staff may check their emails in their breaks, which they appreciate. As the regional core hospital, Chiba Medical Center also conducts clinical training and hospital study sessions. The unified nature of the new network has proved very helpful for these. Allied Telesis Swim Manager 2 provides monitoring and management of the new hospital network. Allied SkyMarshal1, an Allied Telesis network management system, was introduced to manage the wireless LAN. It can automatically search for AT-TQ2403s access points and workstations, and clearly displays a wireless LAN diagram map. It has now been a year since the new hospital network started. Dr. Nakazato says, There are no problems - the network is operating just as expected. Most importantly, we can now provide simple and clear medical care explanations to our patients. When a doctor is explaining a patient s illness and treatment to them, they can access both the electronic medical records, and the Internet. Chiba Medical Center s new network is a vast improvement on the old. There are plans for future expansion. Dr Nakazato says we have received various requests, such as expansion of individual department networks, and the expansion of examination data networking. Chiba Medical Center expects that Allied Telesis products will facilitate network expansion, and will perform just as well in any future expansion as they currently do. Partner Profile RICOH CREATIVE SERVICE COMPANY, LTD Headquarters: Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan. Established: February 1980 Number of Staff: 900 Business covers: building infrastructure, unified facility management, business support, and general affairs and personal support. http://www.rcs.ricoh.co.jp/ (Global web site of RICOH Group; http://www.ricoh.com/ ) Left: Mr. Eiji Ito, Head of Kanagawa IT room, Kanagawa Division, RICHO Creative Service Company. LTD Right: Mr. Yoshikazu Arai, Head of IT supervisory room, IT supervisory Center, RICHO Creative Service Company. LTD 2 Swim Manager and Allied SkyMarshal are available only in Japan National Hospital Organization Chiba Medical Center 7
About Allied Telesis, Inc. Allied Telesis is a leading global provider of high-quality, flexible, and interoperable network solutions. Founded in 1987 and publicly held in Japan, the Company operates manufacturing, R&D, support, and sales offices worldwide, servicing customers in key markets including government, healthcare, defense, education, retail, hospitality and network service providers. Allied Telesis provides standards-based, reliable video, voice and data network solutions for mission-critical applications. Delivering high-performance, future-proof and fully endto-end solutions, Allied Telesis works closely with customers and partners worldwide to build lasting relationships, partnerships and alliances. For further information visit us online at alliedtelesis.com North America Headquarters 19800 North Creek Parkway Suite 100 Bothell WA 98011 USA T: +1 800 424 4284 F: +1 425 481 3895 Asia-Pacific Headquarters 11 Tai Seng Link Singapore 534182 T: +65 6383 3832 F: +65 6383 3830 EMEA & CSA Operations Antareslaan 18 2132 JE Hoofddorp Netherlands T: +31 23 5656800 F: +31 23 5575466 alliedtelesis.com 2012 Allied Telesis, Inc. All rights reserved. Information in this document is subject to change without notice. All company names, logos, and product designs that are trademarks or registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners. C613-20004-00-REV A