Senior care facility unifies patient care with Bountiful® Wi-Fi

Background
Before implementing the Bountiful® Wi-Fi solution, their sites were disorganized mixes of various wireless network equipment. This mix of products never covered more than the administration office in each facility.

The owners had been looking for a solution to completely cover their sites in order to incorporate BlueStep®’s software, installed using existing network products. BlueStep® recommended Bountiful® Wi-Fi.

Site Overview
Guardian Angel Homes’ sites have between 4 and 6 wood-framed buildings, with each structure having between 40,000 and 70,000 square fee. They are a mix of single- and two-story, rectangle-shaped facilities. One building has an elevator. All are equipped with Ethernet connections that run back to the main building’s office space.

Solution
Bountiful® Wi-Fi’s powerful BWLWAPG1000 series wireless access points provide a signal that is 2 to 4 times more powerful than that of the competition, allowing for a quicker, less costly and simpler installation process. The multi-faceted Bountiful® Wi-Fi access controller, BWRACWALL series, provides an opportunity for Guardian Angel Homes to implement BlueStep®’s mobile medication tracking software at their facilities. They needed the network to do the following things before they would be willing to install the equipment:
• VPN tunneling to provide a secure connection for patient records.
• Auto-detect access points for hassle-free setup and use
• Connect the data pipe directly into an access controller’s WAN port and have it act as the DHCP server to avoid adding additional pieces of equipment
• Provide firewall and NAT capabilities to create a secure network
• Central management to create one place from which to manage the network

BlueStep® recommended Bountiful® Wi-Fi for its powerful networking solution and excellent customer service. Bountiful® Wi-Fi has worked with the company in other installs and has found that it offers a unique solution to senior care centers that are looking to mobilize their medical delivery and tracking systems, as well as, in some cases, offering Internet access to residents by utilizing Bountiful® Wi-Fi’s quad-SSID-capable BWRACWALL series access controller and BWLWAPG1000 series access points.

Implementation
Each Guardian Angel Home has a BWRACWALL series access controller and, depending on how many buildings are in the complex, between 4 and 8 BWLWAPG1000 series lightweight, 1000mW access points. The integrators installed one BWLWAPG1000 series lightweight access point in each single story building (40,000 sq. ft.) and two access points in each two-story building (70,000 sq. ft.). All were connected with CAT-5 cable directly to the BWRACWALL series access controller, located in the office space in the main building.

Result
The previously spotty, single building coverage was turned into a full, complex-wide solution with Bountiful® Wi-Fi.

The full coverage is exactly what Guardian Angel Homes’ was looking for. They are now able to reliably and affordable centrally manage each location.

Comparisons
Option 1
2.4 GHz AP (18) at $280.00 each
Controller (1) at $2,100.00
Switch (4) at $162.99 each
Cabling (4) at $200.00 each
Grand Total $8,591.96

Option 2
2.4 GHz AP (18) at $225.39 each
Router (1) at $159.99
Switch (4) at $84.99 each
Cabling (4) at $200.00 each
Grand Total $5,356.97

Bountiful® WiFi
BWLWAPG (8) at $289.00 each
BWRACWALL16 (1) at $1,491.84
Switch (1) at $150.00
Cabling (1) at $200.00
Grand Total $4,153.84*

In every instance, Bountiful® Wi-Fi beats the competition in cost savings. With Option 2, no controller is quoted because the ability to manage, control and change the network from one central location is not offered. With Bountiful® Wi-Fi, the integrators provide so much more than just a cost benefit. They have complete control and remote management of the network.

Option 1 has a centrally-managed controller with some of the same features as the Bountiful® Wi-Fi BWRACWALL series access controller, but the solution provided by Bountiful® Wi-Fi is 106% less than Option 1.

*Further discounts are available for VARSense® members.