Latrobe Regional Health

The challenge

LRH's patients often bring their phone or tablet to the hospital with them so they have the convenience of calling family and friends, listening to music or watching their favourite show during their stay. And in today's digital-first world, reliable internet means visitors can stay by their loved ones' side without missing work or school.

LRH Chief Information Officer Adrian Shearer said the challenge for LRH was ensuring patients have fast, reliable and free internet access to stay connected.

And as hospitals become increasingly hi-tech, Adrian said it was important that the public internet didn't interfere with any of LRH's electronic systems or networks.

The solution

LRH needed fast, reliable public internet solution that did not interfere with the hospital's systems.

To achieve this, Adrian Shearer's team investigated internet service providers with a robust, scalable, and reliable fibre product.

"Aussie Broadband had just increased its fibre network footprint in the area, so the timing made them a good fit,” Adrian said.

"From there, the Aussie Broadband team were very accommodating. And being a local provider was also a bonus. They really understand our community and what our hospital is trying to achieve."

Latrobe Regional Health engaged Aussie Broadband to connect a dedicated high-speed fibre internet connection to its main campus, consulting suites, the Tandara Caravan Park across the road, and on-call staff residences.

Aussie Broadband's fibre network offers high reliability and uptime, a marked improvement on the legacy infrastructure of copper.

With the hospital's internet considered a critical service, LRH hoped to avoid downtime as much as possible. All Aussie Fibre services come with a Service Level Agreement that guarantees 99.95 per cent uptime. In the rare event of additional downtime, LRH would get a rebate so they weren't paying for internet they couldn't use.

With a high-speed fibre connection, LRH's public internet can handle the high-bandwidth requirements of modern internet applications.

And their service is ready for the future too. Currently a 1000/1000Mbps, service, Aussie Fibre has in-built scalability for up to 10,000/10,000Mbps, meaning it's future-proofed to handle increased connectivity requirements.

Despite having a large area to cover, Aussie Broadband made setting up the network easy for Adrian and the team.

To ensure a smooth transition to the hospital's internal IT team, Aussie Broadband worked closely with staff at all stages of the project. The result was a turn-key system that made managing the network simple.

However, if LRH's team needs support at any time, they knew Aussie Broadband's customer service team is just a call away.

“The Aussie Broadband team were highly professional across every stage of the project. They kept us in the loop as work progressed. And when any issues that arose, the team resolved them very quickly,” Adrian said.

The result

Using Aussie Fibre as a public internet solution has enabled LRH to separate the internet traffic from clinical and non-clinical environments. With more avenues for traffic, the network can run as smoothly as possible - and with increased security.

And although Adrian and his team had high expectations of Aussie Broadband's connection capabilities, they were surprised by the result.

With the new public internet network up and running, Latrobe Regional Health's patients and visitors have one less thing to worry about.