Ask a director of nursing what frustrates staff most about technology and Wi-Fi is near the top of the list. A tablet that drops its connection halfway through a medication pass or a laptop on a cart that cannot reach the EHR in the east wing costs real time every shift. In most facilities the problem is not the internet service. It is how the wireless network was laid out, usually years ago, when only a few devices needed it.
This article walks through how to plan Wi-Fi for a skilled nursing, assisted living or senior-living building so that coverage is dependable where care actually happens.
Wireless planning starts on paper, not with hardware. Gather a current floor plan and mark the places where devices are used most:
Nurses' stations and medication rooms
Resident rooms and hallways where carts travel
Therapy gyms, dining rooms and activity areas
Offices, the business office and reception
Outdoor courtyards if staff or residents use them
Then list what connects wirelessly: charting tablets, workstations on wheels, handheld scanners, VoIP phones, wireless nurse call components, resident entertainment devices and guest phones. Each category has different needs. A medication cart needs a steady connection while moving. A resident streaming video in a room needs bandwidth but not roaming.
Older care buildings often have thick masonry walls, fire-rated doors and metal-framed construction. These block wireless signal far more than ordinary drywall. A single access point in a hallway may look fine on a map and still leave rooms at each end with poor signal.
A predictive survey, done with software from the floor plan, gives a first estimate. For anything beyond a small building, an on-site survey is better. A technician walks the building with a measuring tool and records real signal strength, interference and dead spots before any permanent equipment is mounted.
One wireless network for everyone is a security and performance problem. A sensible design usually includes:
A staff network for facility-owned devices that access resident records and business systems
A device network for medical devices, printers or building systems that cannot use modern security settings
A guest network for residents, families and visitors, isolated from everything internal
The guest network protects you most. A visiting family member's phone, or a resident's old laptop, should never share a network with the EHR workstations. We cover the wiring side of this idea in more depth in our article on segmenting networks that include medical devices.
A map full of green signal bars does not guarantee good performance. Every access point can serve only so many devices at once, and a wing full of residents on tablets in the evening can overwhelm a network designed for daytime staff use. Plan for the busiest hour, not the average one.
Consider these points when sizing a design:
Count devices per area, including residents' personal devices.
Prefer more access points at lower power over fewer at high power.
Make sure the wired connections feeding the access points, called switches and cabling, can carry the load.
Use current wireless standards on new equipment, while confirming that older handhelds are still supported.
Staff move while they work, so devices must hand off cleanly from one access point to the next. If VoIP phones or scanners drop calls in hallways, roaming settings are often the cause. These settings should be tested while walking the building with a device, not assumed correct.
Good coverage is only half the job. For the staff network, ask for:
Modern encryption (WPA2 or WPA3) with strong credentials, not a shared password written on a whiteboard
Individual or device-based authentication where equipment supports it
Rotation of the guest password at a regular interval
Central management so firmware updates are not forgotten
HIPAA's Security Rule expects reasonable safeguards for electronic protected health information in transit, and a wireless network carrying charting traffic is part of that picture.
A wireless network is not set and forget. New equipment, moved furniture, a new neighbor with strong wireless signal or a busier census can change performance. A managed dashboard that reports access point health and client counts lets problems be spotted before staff call the helpdesk.
If you suspect your Wi-Fi is holding your staff back, begin by asking nurses where connections drop, mark those spots on a floor plan, and compare them against your access point locations. That simple exercise often shows the pattern right away.
UnityCare IT performs wireless assessments for long-term care and senior-living facilities in Oklahoma, Texas and Arkansas. If you would like a second set of eyes on your coverage, we are glad to walk the building with you and recommend a plan that fits your layout and budget.
Call or text: 405-285-3845
New customers: start@unitycareit.com
Existing customers: support@unitycareit.com
Address: UnityCare Technologies, 2524 N Broadway Ste 554, PMB 947974, Edmond, Oklahoma 73034-4172