Customer Success Story
Island Hospital Prescribes Mist Wi-Fi to Improve Clinical Experiences
Island Hospital is the Level III Washington state trauma center that cares for the people of western Skagit County, Whidbey Island and the San Juan Islands. In 2019, the hospital had more than 120,000 outpatient visits, nearly 18,000 emergency visits, and delivered 400 babies. But delivering consistently reliable Wi-Fi services was an ongoing challenge, and the network team was spending too much time chasing Wi-Fi ghosts.
Overview
| Company | Island Hospital |
| Industry | Healthcare |
| Region | Americas |
90%
Reduction of Wi-Fi-related trouble tickets
Improved
Network experience for clinicians and administrative staff
Ensured
Reliable connectivity for temperature sensors and other medical equipment
Clinical staff at Island Hospital were increasingly frustrated with the quality of their legacy Wi-Fi service. The hospital’s controller-based wireless LAN system could not keep pace with the demands of healthcare technology.
“Client devices were dropping off of the network, and no one could figure out why, including the manufacturer,” Taylor says. “It was like we had ghosts in the machine.”
In 2018, Taylor set out to find a modern wireless LAN that could support Island Hospital’s healthcare IT objectives. The IT team considered the top wireless LAN solutions on the market, but Mist—at the time a brand-new startup—didn’t make the cut.
“We needed a stable solution that we could put in and not babysit,” Taylor says. “Mist was not under consideration initially because we were apprehensive about trusting new, untested technology with our production workloads.”
As Taylor continued to chase the wireless ghosts with the hospital’s existing wireless LAN vendor while looking for a new system, he became intrigued by the Mist story.
“Since we put in Mist, we don’t get calls about the wireless network anymore,” Taylor says.
The Juniper Mist Cloud Architecture provides scale and agility through a modern microservices cloud architecture. Marvis, the AI engine built directly into the Mist platform, delivers unprecedented IT automation and insight into user experiences.
Island Hospital leverages advanced technology to improve patient outcomes. Now, clinicians have fast, reliable access when entering patients’ vitals, ordering tests, or reading diagnostic images. Wi-Fi-enabled medical equipment stay reliably connected.
Clinicians don’t notice the Wi-Fi anymore, and stay focused on patient care. The IT team has seen trouble tickets related to WiFi drop by 90 percent.
“We can upgrade the access points in a particular area to test out new versions of code, and then proceed with larger rollouts after we verify that there are no issues,” he says. “With Mist, changes can be rolled back quickly and easily if necessary, which is a big departure from the controller-based wireless LANs.”
With Marvis, network administrators and helpdesk staff can ask questions and get intuitive answers on par with a wireless expert. “The ability to go into Marvis with free text search and ask what’s going on with a device is incredible,” he says. “Having Mist saves us hours or even days of work.”
With an AI-driven network, Island Hospital has a foundation for the future. Mist Access Points include virtual Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) beacons, and the Juniper Mist Cloud Architecture can deliver location analytics, opening new possibilities for using sensors to track newborns, contactless patient check-in, and turn-by-turn directions across the hospital campus.
“When we are ready to do location services, we can just turn on the capability in Mist Cloud,” says Taylor.
As Island Hospital continues to serve the community, it can be confident that it can deliver exceptional network user experiences to clinicians, staff, and patients and their families while streamlining network operations. The hospital can be equally confident that its network is both a game-changer and backed by Juniper’s proven history.
“I was amazed when I first started working with Mist by how quickly support would respond to me, and I continue to be amazed every time I have to put in a support request,” Taylor says.
The Products
AI-Native automation and insights—coupled with the agility and reliability of a microservices cloud—deliver optimized wireless access experiences and simplified network operations.
Published September 2020