More agile patient care at Scotland’s newest hospitals.

Case study - NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde.

Building the new Queen Elizabeth University Hospital and the Royal Hospital for Children was set to transform acute health services in the region. Each detail of its design offered new and more sustainable ways of working. A major challenge for Karen McSweeney and her team, however, was to introduce state-of-the-art systems that would also leverage legacy investments across NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde.

BT delivered the unified communications and collaboration platform to perform that masterpiece of integration. With the project completed on time and on budget, Karen was able to provide the mobility tools needed for exceptional standards of healthcare.

As our current provider and to ensure leverage of our existing estates, we considered BT to be the only partner that could deliver the low risk, seamless migration we demanded. Its experience and attention to detail was instrumental in the smooth delivery of what was a very high-profile project.

Karen McSweeneyTelecommunications General ManagerNHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde

BT developed an elegant, feature rich solution. We can use our legacy infrastructure and, as we refurbish older buildings, we can simply transition voice services across to the new core platform.

Karen McSweeney Telecommunications General Manager NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde

Unified communications technology from BT powers NHS hospital designed for today and tomorrow.

Case Study - NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde.

BT roadmap bridges technology investments.The two new hospitals built on the grounds of the Southern General Hospital impress in every way. The Queen Elizabeth University Hospital has 14 stories which stand on a site as big as five football pitches offering 7,500 rooms, 30 operating theatres, 34 lifts and the largest emergency department in Scotland. All 1,109 adult general beds are in private ensuite rooms with outside views, as are the general beds in the Royal Hospital for Children opening the window on a whole new approach to patient care

Karen McSweeney, telecommunications general manager at NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, says: “Nurses are no longer tied to fixed stations and allied healthcare professionals are much more mobile on the campus. They’re equipped with agile mobile technology enabling them to stay in contact with patients, colleagues and patient information systems throughout their working day.”

However, investment protection is vitally important. Although the new hospital needed state-of-the-art unified communications it had to integrate with legacy systems. With a long history of service to the NHS in Scotland, BT stepped forward to help NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde develop a technology roadmap.

Wi-Fi telephones enable agile working.In the new hospital, BT has installed an Avaya Aura® Communications Manager in a duplex configuration to assure business continuity. Currently set up to serve 6,300 extensions, the system has the capacity to support the entire NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde estate. To enable agile working, 2,000 of the extensions are Ascom Wi-Fi handsets for mobile staff across all disciplines. The system is also equipped to support unified communications and collaboration apps such as instant messaging and presence, as well as softphone clients for laptops and tablets.

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde has 67 other sites. Around 85 per cent of its 30,000 extensions are served by a mix of legacy Nortel Meridian and Avaya CS1000 systems, with the

remainder using Cisco Unified Communication Manager. BT One Cloud hosted voice services create a private telephone network between the sites. This is fully integrated with the NHS Scotland national voice network and dial plan. BT supports the end-to-end voice estate for NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde under a managed services agreement that includes dedicated on-site support staff.

The Avaya Aura Communications Manager links to the legacy infrastructure using session initiation protocol (SIP). It also provides a fully integrated numbering plan with single number reach. “BT developed an elegant, feature rich solution,” says Karen. “We can use our legacy infrastructure and, as we refurbish older buildings, we can simply transition voice services across to the new core platform.”

Best practice promises blueprint for the region.BT appointed a senior project director to oversee the implementation, as well as sub-project managers for individual solution elements. Karen recalls: “The senior project director oversaw all contractors and suppliers such as Openreach and Ascom and kept us fully informed every step of the way. It’s fair to say the BT project team took all the pain away.” That attention to detail paid dividends, with BT delivering the project on time and within budget.

The best practice developed around the new hospital is forming the blueprint for wider infrastructure rationalisation, offering the potential to create up to four regional clusters across Glasgow and Clyde. Maximising reuse of existing assets will also simplify administration by rationalising 68 databases to no more than four.

“It’s a great bonus that BT can support both Avaya and Cisco technology,” says Karen. “With their dual-skilled engineers onsite we can make changes in an instant. We can also restore service far more quickly than would otherwise be possible. They’re a really fantastic team. I wouldn’t want to be without them.”

In fact, if I had to do it all over again, I’d do it exactly the same way.

Karen McSweeney Telecommunications General Manager NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde

Case Study - NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde.

Highest healthcare standards and 20 per cent hike in productivity.The BT solution forms a resilient unified communications platform that underpins the new hospital’s agile working ethos. With single number reach, multi-disciplinary staff can be contacted instantly while the major incident team can be convened at the touch of a button.

Technology abounds. For example, the hospital features automatic guided vehicles to deliver items to where they’re needed. Porters are called direct on their Wi-Fi handsets to collect items from the automatic vehicles or transport a patient.

Studies have estimated the new ways of working will enable productivity improvements, while delivering the highest standards of patient care. “It’s been a hugely successful project and BT has played a critical part,” concludes Karen. “In fact, if I had to do it all over again, I’d do it exactly the same way.”

Offices worldwideThe telecommunications services described in this publication are subject to availability and may be modified from time to time. Services and equipment are provided subject to British Telecommunications plc’s respective standard conditions of contract. Nothing in this publication forms any part of any contract. © British Telecommunications plc 2015. Registered office: 81 Newgate Street, London EC1A 7AJ. Registered in England No: 1800000

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August 2015

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