Siemens Deploys Unified Communication Solution at Teaching Hospital

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. -- Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital, a large acute-care teaching hospital, has chosen Siemens Communications to upgrade its hospital-wide communications system.

SBCH required a cost-effective telecommunication environment that would support analog, digital, and VoIP stations as well as IP WAN. The hospital also wanted to unify communications, enhancing its employees' and patients' ability to communicate more efficiently.

"Over the 20 years of our business relationship, Siemens has provided excellent service, and designed and implemented cost-effective communications solutions tailored to our needs," said Alberto Kywi, the hospital's vice president and chief information officer.. "Improving interactions between administrators, medical staff and patients through unified communications enhances patient care and reduces our costs, making it a win-win for everyone."

Siemens Communications' solution improves communications and productivity among healthcare staff, optimizes patient experience and reduces operational costs. Siemens worked hand in hand with SBCH to develop and implement, within the hospital's budget parameters, a technology roadmap and strategic plan to deploy the improvements the hospital sought for today and into the future.

Siemens' converged HiPath 4000 and HiPath 3000 IP Systems enhances communications continuity, improves user collaboration and productivity and allows SBCH to quickly and easily expand to support additional users and applications over the IP network. At the same time, the interconnection of these systems delivers a single system image with a uniform dialing plan and rich user experience, improving communications among staff and with patients. A HiPath Xpressions Unified Communications solution consolidated SBCH's messaging architecture, saving the hospital money. The new solution provides a seamless, uniform collaboration environment with instant access virtually anywhere, anytime to people, schedules and clinical information.

The new voice network has integrated communications into SBCH's operational processes. The HiPath 3000 and HiPath 4000 network improves quality of patient care; supports security, privacy and compliance requirements; aligns clinical workflows to operate more efficiently; and leverages technology to improve access to patient information.