Today we expect connectivity everywhere we go, and the experience we have with our Wi-Fi network can make or break our relationship with the network owner. Whether it’s a student, guest, customer, patient, or employee experience – good Wi-Fi is table stakes. If you don’t have it, you won’t even have a seat at the table. Today we’re proud to announce that Extreme and our customer Novant Health have been recognized with the Wi-Fi At Work Awards by WifiForward, a coalition of companies, organizations, and public sector institutions working to keep communities connected over the internet.

The healthcare industry relied on Wi-Fi to deliver critical services during the pandemic – from powering pop-up triage tents to mobile healthcare clinics, testing sites, and mass vaccination events. Not to mention telehealth has finally found mainstream adoption in many corners of the world.

When Novant Health was tasked with setting up a temporary vaccination site to vaccinate over 2,200 individuals earlier this year, it required a strong and secure network to process and protect patient information. There was not a lot of time to plan, due to the critical nature of the vaccine and handling a significant volume of patients each day.  Thanks to the simplicity of Extreme’s cloud-managed Wi-Fi solution, Novant was able to roll out access points (APs) mounted on rolling carts across the facility in under one hour, providing strong and secure connectivity throughout the site.

The mass vaccination site took up about half of the arena in the Spectrum Center in Charlotte, NC. The Novant Health team deployed 19 APs mounted to wheeled carts that could be plugged in anywhere, allowing them to be easily moved throughout the arena. The APs were connected to the existing Spectrum Center infrastructure via a virtual LAN, linking APs back to Novant Health’s cloud managed network. And with Extreme’s ISO 27001 certified APs connected back to Novant Health’s electronic medical record system, healthcare staff were able to load and update patient records without latency, allowing them to process thousands of patients during a single mass vaccination event.A typical clinic administers approximately 500 vaccines per day.

Vaccines are our most effective tool for combatting COVID-19, and organizations like Novant Health are working tirelessly to administer as many as they can. The challenges of working through a pandemic are enormous, and the technology that supports healthcare workers should simplify complexity and reduce stress – especially Wi-Fi, which powers so many mission-critical healthcare applications and medical devices.

“Wi-Fi is a literal lifeline,” said Ellen Satterwhite, spokesperson for WifiForward. “So many organizations found creative ways to bring this lifeline to more people when they needed it most. These Wi-Fi At Work Awards recognize these remarkable organizations. On behalf of all our coalition members, we are pleased to honor this vital work to connect our communities.”