By Enzo Daniele, Linked In, Twitter 

Rolling out free WiFi connectivity for patients and visitors to improve their in-hospital experience is fast becoming a priority for many NHS organisations.

According to Patient Opinion, the UK’s leading independent non-profit feedback platform for health services, patients and their loved ones value internet access – and miss it when it isn’t there. Offering an opportunity to connect to those important to them – friends, family, carers or workplace colleagues – they expect to use the internet wherever they go.  And for them, being in hospital should be no different.

In today’s digital age, NHS hospitals already recognise the potential benefits to be gained by switching on site-wide public WiFi services. Enhanced care delivery capabilities, smoother patient journeys and the opportunity to improve how they interact with patients are just the start.Improving patient health and safety in IT by ensuring that data can be input – and accessed at the bedside – is another major driver.  Plus, many clinicians and nursing teams acknowledge that being able to keep in touch with loved ones and the outside world boosts patient moral – which often leads to a speedier recovery.

Back in 2015, Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt announced free wireless internet was to be provided in all NHS buildings so that patients could stay in contact with friends and families, and access the services they need. Indeed, the government expects the NHS to go ‘digital and paperless’ by 2020.

But many hospitals are struggling to make this service a reality for patients, visitors and staff.  For some, concern around the cost of funding free WiFi is a major issue. For others, building out the existing wireless infrastructure to enable the required bandwidth represents a further challenge.

Meanwhile, some hospitals say they simply don’t have the in-house IT resources required to manage the service on a day-to-day basis.

At PSTG, we’ve helped many hospitals address all these issues and move ahead with their digital ambitions. We’ve enabled NHS clients to:

• Build a business case – with a choice of revenue generation models that include offering visitors and patients 15 minutes free WiFi access a day, with the option of then using a pay-per-use service.

• Secure their WiFi infrastructure and protect users from online threats with configurable filters that create a safer browsing environment.

• Maintain duty of care responsibilities, ensuring that web content filters are in place to block access to illegal or highly inappropriate content.

• Ensure everyone can access the Internet by limiting excessive bandwidth use by guests.

• Provide a fully managed service – that includes oversight of pay-for-use services.

With our help, NHS hospitals have been able to rollout public WiFi across their premises and initiate innovative ways to engage with visitors and patients. For example, we’ve built guest welcome pages, accessed via the internet that make it easy for people to navigate around the hospital, find useful information and services, make charitable donations or take part in patient surveys.

Alongside providing way finders that prevent people getting lost, we can also let them know where the nearest Costa Coffee is, or the opening hours of on-site shops, or where different clinical departments are located.  We can also make it easy for out-patients to electronically check-in to their appointment on arrival.

If you’d like to find out how we can help you provide a connected service for patients, visitors and staff, then simply get in touch. We’d be only too happy to talk through the options with you.