10 Mistakes Healthcare Organizations Make When Implementing Wireless Technology

When healthcare organizations incorporate wireless technology into their operations, they often make 10 common mistakes, according to attendees of the 2012 Wireless Workshop convened in October 2012 by the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation, the American College of Clinical Engineering, the American Society for Healthcare Engineering and the ECRI Institute.

The discussions and findings from the workshop were compiled in the "Healthcare Technology in a Wireless World" report.

Here are the 10 common mistakes identified by the workshop attendees.

1. Underestimation of the potential risk to patient safety.
2. Lack of planning, including but not limited to inadequate testing, too little time for verification and an unrealistic and/or incomplete budgeting and schedule.
3. Decision-making with false assumptions.
4. Purchasing end-point wireless devices before realizing the limitations of the current infrastructure.
5. Failure to design with a safety margin.
6. Failure to properly manage changes made to the wireless network.
7. Failure to embrace vendor site testing of the network.
8. Failure to take into account different environments of care, intended uses and intended use environments.
9. Failure to perform routine maintenance.
10. Failure to consider that construction projects or physical changes to a facility could impact wireless performance.

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