Category 6A Cabling: Benefits for Hospital Stakeholders

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Guest Author: Francois Durand, Product Application Engineer, Network Connectivity

Throughout this series we’ve discussed how technology has dramatically transformed the healthcare industry for the better. Healthcare facilities all over the world are embracing the innovations of the digital age, but to stay modernized and efficient they have to make critical infrastructure upgrades especially when it comes to network connectivity. With the rise of clinical information and scheduling systems to in-room and remote patient monitoring, hospitals need a reliable bandwidth to support the storage, integration, and exchange of digital data that runs rampant in today’s health facilities.

In our previous blog we recommended that hospitals upgrade their networks with Category 6A cables to ensure they can address the needs of hospital occupants today and in the future. This upgrade delivers a number of significant benefits to stakeholders throughout the entire hospital system, such as:

• Patients: An upgrade in hospital internet connectivity can improve clinical efficiencies by minimizing delays due to a slow connection. In turn, these efficiencies will lead to better overall patient safety and satisfaction. In addition to adding features like patient WiFi access, increased connectivity also enables healthcare organizations to offer more streamlined patient care.
• IT managers: IT staff will benefit greatly from Power over Ethernet (PoE) cables which provide easier connections for new devices – meaning less cost and less installation time so IT pros can focus on more critical tasks. Also, the ability of a PoE cable to both power devices and provide internet will significantly cut down on the mess of cords found in many facilities.
• Facilities managers: Category 6A cables provide much stronger network connectivity. In an age of new and emerging IoT facility solutions, reliable connectivity is essential, and will allow the hospital’s infrastructure to run more smoothly on a day-to-day basis.
• CFOs: Choosing 6A cables eliminates future rip-and-replace costs that a hospital would incur if they installed Category 5 or 6 cables initially, which can save hospitals $1 million in revenue losses.

From both a financial and safety standpoint, upgrading to category 6A cables is the right decision for healthcare facilities. Installation will save time, reduce costs, ensure uninterrupted patient attention, and guarantee that facilities are well prepared in advance for larger-scale implementation of PoE.

Hospitals that upgrade their network cabling now will ensure they are well-positioned to handle the increased demand as more network-based and IoT technologies become part of their daily operations. Consider transitioning to higher-capacity cables now to prepare for the healthcare innovations of tomorrow.

Download our whitepaper to find out more about the benefits of upgrading technology for healthcare facilities. Or, for more information, contact Francois Durand.