Established more than a century ago, the Royal Victoria Eye and Ear Hospital (RVEEH) in Dublin is one of Ireland’s longest-serving specialty hospitals, providing world-class patient services and essential specialist training in its role as a teaching hospital. A major new communications program at the RVEEH, delivered with eircom, has equipped the hospital with a robust, medical grade data and telephony infrastructure that will let the institution meet the challenges of 21st century medicine.

1. Royal Victoria Eye & Ear Hospital
Case Study | Managed IT solution

2. 2 Case Study — Royal Victoria Hospita Case Study — Royal Victoria Hospital 3
Overview “The RVEEH is a very specialist
Established more than a century ago, the Royal Victoria hospital, and in future we may
Eye and Ear Hospital (RVEEH) in Dublin is one of Ireland’s need to cater for transmission
longest-serving specialty hospitals, providing world-class
patient services and essential specialist training in its and flow of patient data to
role as a teaching hospital. A major new communications
program at the RVEEH, delivered with eircom, has
other institutions. With the
equipped the hospital with a robust, medical grade data system eircom has established
and telephony infrastructure that will let the institution
meet the challenges of 21st century medicine.
for us, we’re now confident that
As part of the strategic development at the RVEEH, the hospital
we’ll be able to do this. ”
decided in 2007 to upgrade its voice and data infrastructure,
which had reached the end of its life and no longer adequately
supported the organisation or its plans for growth.
Eddie O’Hanlon
IT Manager.
“The system was aging, we could no longer add new
extensions, and moving forward we needed a voice and data
system that could meet our development requirements, ” said
Eddie O’Hanlon, IT Manager for the RVEEH. “In developing our
original Request for Proposals, we looked ahead at our future
needs. ”
An IP telephony solution was specified in the tender, and after
considering the responses from a number of providers, the
hospital chose eircom.

3. 4 Case Study — Royal Victoria Hospita Case Study — Royal Victoria Hospital 5
“The people we worked with
Key Benefits
RVEEH & eircom
from eircom were very good
• Tailored Solution: eircom rolled out a
and also very experienced, Cisco-based medical grade local area
implementation went well, and network throughout the hospital, with IP
telephony for the hospital’s existing 250
we now have what we’d hoped extensions, expandable to 1,000 extensions.
for: an infrastructure that suits • Ethernet Network: The Cisco Ethernet
our needs right now and lets us network, which delivers 1Gbps to the
desktop with 10Gbps uplinks, replaces a
move into the future. ” highly heterogeneous legacy network with
a resilient, fault-tolerant voice and data
infrastructure.
Eddie O’Hanlon
IT Manager. • Expert installation: eircom’s own
engineers, Cisco-certified for voice and
data networks, handled all installation,
including establishment of wireless network
connectivity into the hospital’s Learning
and Library Centre, an annex to the main
building.
• Future confidence: “We did our research, ”
Eddie said. “Having visited Cisco with eircom
to see how the technology is used by other
hospitals, we were satisfied that the Cisco
system is internationally recognised as being
very good. The RVEEH is a very specialist
hospital, and in future we may need to cater
for transmission and flow of patient data to
other institutions. With the system eircom
has established for us, we’re now confident
that we’ll be able to do this. ”

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Programme managed Choosing eircom delivers
implementation delivers benefits for RVEEH
successful results
The new communications infrastructure has
already delivered a number of benefits for
Programme managed implementation delivers
the hospital:
successful results A joint implementation team,
incorporating key hospital personnel and led • Future Proofed
by Programme Manager Peter Morgan from ability to accommodate future growth needs,
eircom’s Design and Delivery division, initiated including additional telephone extensions
delivery planning in early 2009. inside the main hospital or Learning and
Library Centre
Working to eircom’s proven design and delivery
methodologies, the joint implementation team • Expanded Functionality
successfully completed rollout over a 12 week full wireless voice and data connectivity into
period: the learning centre supports educational
needs, including high-bandwidth applications
A detailed project planning process developed
a framework of milestones within which work • Positive Reception
was completed, and against which eircom hospital operators report very high
monitored progress and reported to the Hospital satisfaction levels with the new, VDU
Management Group equipped handsets. “Our operators who
use the telephone system 24 hours a day
• Pre-emptive action
are delighted with it, ” said Eddie. “They
continuously looking forward to detect
appreciate the VDU screens and say the
potential obstacles, the team successfully
ability to choose numbers from a list is much
identified and managed away any issues
faster and more user-friendly.”
before they impacted the delivery schedule
• New possibilities
• Project Management
The data infrastructure can support Picture
eircom liaised with and managed third parties
Archiving and Communications Systems
where needed, including a cabling provider
(PACS), allowing the hospital to further
engaged by the hospital to upgrade its wiring
explore the potential of this technology
• Seamless Installation
• International standard
eircom’s testing and delivery methodologies
hospitals internationally use the same
helped ensure that the project, a root-and-
Cisco infrastructure to support a range of
branch replacement of communications
applications, including time and attendance
systems, entailed no loss of communications
recording and RFID tracking of hospital
service for hospital staff, so patient care and
assets, opening additional potential for
operational continuity were protected
RVEEH to drive value from its investment

5. Get in touch
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your business, please contact your eircom account manager.
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