Peninsula Health is embarking on a connectivity upgrade
Telstra has won the A$1.6 million ($1 million) contract to deliver extensive connectivity upgrades at Peninsula Health, a major public health service in Victoria.
According to a press release, the organization is seeking to replace its existing IT systems across 13 hospitals and healthcare locations with “smarter, more secure and more resilient technology, CISCO SDWAN and (and) faster internet services.” It also wants to simplify existing contracts and processes to reduce costs.
Telstra will increase its bandwidth four times over current speeds, and introduce a solution for each local location so that it can operate independently and uninterruptedly in the event of an outage at the head office.
The IT supplier expects to complete the project “mid to late 2024”.
WHY IT MATTERS
Telstra’s IT solution will help Peninsula Health staff and patients securely connect to internet services through an online-only system, leaving behind legacy IT networks that did not communicate with each other. It will also ensure the resilience of the system in the event of disruption.
“The impact on a hospital or healthcare system can be particularly serious in the event of a power outage or local disruption. Therefore, the work program will also include increased redundancy to ensure the system is as resilient as possible.” explains John Ieraci, owner of Defense and Public Sector Telstra Enterprise Group.
Enabling staff to work with “faster, more flexible systems” also allows them to focus on delivering care, while patients benefit from “greater connectivity and guest internet (access),” said David English, executive director of Digital Health and Informatics at Peninsula Health.
THE GREATER CONTEXT
The organization-wide connectivity upgrade is part of Peninsula Health’s broader digital transformation. As a reminder, it enforced remote work and introduced telehealth services during the height of the global pandemic in 2021. Logicalis’ Citrix Cloud-based digital workplace provided staff with a shared environment that streamlined execution, improved collaboration and equal access and parts insured. of information, regardless of their location.
Peninsula Health was also the first in Victoria’s Frankston and the Mornington Peninsula last year to implement Magentus’ oncology information management solution, Charm Evolution, which has reduced paperwork and allowed doctors to spend more time on patient care.