Sep 1, 2004 12:00 PM, BY DONNY JACKSON

Sprint has announced the implementation of its 802.11g network to enhance the voice communication system for the University of California-Davis Health System.

Utilizing Cisco Systems' Aironet Access Points, the private Wi-Fi network will be deployed over 1 million square feet at the 576-bed UC-Davis Medical Center in Sacramento. The deployment also represents the first time Sprint has integrated a Vocera Communications system that allows instant voice communication between hospital personnel via Vocera's lightweight voice-over-IP communications badges that can be operated with simple voice commands such as “Call Dr. Anderson” or “Call pharmacy.”

Jennifer Johnson, director of Sprint's health-care division, said the carrier believes that the health-care sector represents a tremendous opportunity for growth.

“There is a significant amount of change — an evolution on the verge of revolution — in the health-care marketplace,” Johnson said. “We are an information-insatiable society, and consumers are used to having instant information available.”

Brent Lang, Vocera's vice president of marketing, said the voice-activated VoIP system not only lets hospital employees chat instantaneously on the campus but also enables calls to and from cellular networks, so hospital personnel can be accessed quickly when needed.

“Because our clinicians are always on the move throughout our hospital, the communication and information management tools have to be mobile, too,” Dr. Thomas Tinstman, associate director for clinical information systems at the UC Davis Medical Center, said in a statement. “Sprint assisted us by providing the infrastructure that supports these needs.”

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