Sarasota Memorial selects Meru for pervasive wireless coverage to healthcare industry

Meru Networks, Inc. (Nasdaq: MERU), the leader in virtualized 802.11n enterprise wireless networking, today announced that Sarasota Memorial Health Care System, the second-largest acute care public medical center in Florida, selected Meru for pervasive wireless coverage throughout their 806-bed facility.  Over 1,000 health care customers around the world have selected Meru's virtualized wireless LAN (WLAN) solution for predictable coverage, seamless mobility and reliable voice-over-wireless LAN (VoWLAN) in order to migrate to an All-Wireless Enterprise™.  Specifically, Sarasota Memorial's nursing staff was experiencing difficulties communicating with colleagues at the point-of-care and the hospital needed a reliable and predictable voice handset solution.  Their previous system was inefficient because when a patient would push a bedside button, the notification did not go directly to the right caregiver which resulted in dozens of overhead pages a day.  Meru collaborated with Voalte, a leading provider of software communication solutions for health care institutions, to deploy a unified communications platform that would connect nurses and other care team members using Apple iPhones.  On the floors that deployed Meru's virtualized WLAN solution and Voalte's solution, the hospital reduced overhead pages by nearly 80 percent.  

"Today, supporting mobility is mission-critical for the health care industry as health care providers and administrators rely on their iPhones as they roam throughout their facility," said Rob Campbell, chief executive officer, Voalte.  "By partnering with Meru, we are able to deliver the reliability and service assurance our customers demand."

Key Facts

• Rated among America's 50 Best Hospitals by U.S. News & World Report and as one of America's Safest Hospitals by Forbes.com, Sarasota Memorial has a strong commitment to excellence.  Sarasota Memorial, an 806-bed medical center with more than 4,000 staff and 1,000 volunteers, were impressed with the ease of the 802.11n deployment and seamless roaming of mobile devices like iPhones and iPod Touches.  In addition, Sarasota Memorial selected Meru and Voalte for additional deployments, including a second nursing floor and the critical care tower to provide iPhones running on Meru's virtualized WLAN to anesthesiologists for communications throughout the hospital.
• Sarasota Memorial received the Magnet Nursing Services Recognition from the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) — the nation's highest honor for excellence in nursing and one that has been earned by less than five percent of U.S. hospitals.  Sarasota Memorial needed to address their 400-person nursing staff which was overwhelmed by the daily volume of voice and pager messages and electronic mail received from care team members, staff and patients.  By deploying Voalte's iPhones over Meru's WLAN, nurses are able to manage and prioritize their critical messages from non-critical messages and better respond to patient needs.  
• Nurses carry multiple mobile devices to communicate and collaborate with the administration and other healthcare providers and as they converge on specific areas of the hospital, they were concerned about dropped calls. Meru's virtualized WLAN solutions, based on Meru's patented Virtual Port™ technology, delivers dedicated bandwidth with customizable and predictable over-the-air quality-of-service (QoS) essential for high density environments, enabling the hospital to avoid a Wi-Fi Meltdown™.
• Both Meru and Voalte were recently recognized by Everything Channel's CRN Magazine as one of the top 100 Health Care Vendors of 2010.  This first annual list recognizes the most important health care technology vendors that have industry leading solutions for the health care industry.

"Health care has among the most demanding requirements for a wireless network.  Wireless technology has already transformed health care around the world, but its potential is much greater", said John Gallagher, senior director, solutions marketing, Meru Networks.  "Wireless technology today drives down health care costs, eases the burden on caregivers and enables new forms of examination and treatment.  Meru helps doctors, nurses and hospitals accelerate that transformation, improving patient care while minimizing the risk, time and cost found with other wireless solutions.  Meru's virtualized WLAN meet the needs of health care, with a converged network that delivers industry-leading performance for voice calls, patient telemetry and location tracking."