Perth's Fiona Stanley Hospital signs on with BT

The new Fiona Stanley Hospital in Perth, Western Australia, will put communications and sustainability at the forefront of its IT agenda, thanks to an agreement with international services firm, Serco, for facilities management and support services.

The project

Serco will partner with BT for the project. In accordance with the contract, BT will install and manage the hospital's communications infrastructure and run a range of IT services.

The finalisation of contract negotiations means the project team can begin a three-year plan to establish its equipment, innovation and systems for the 783 bed hospital, due to open in 2014.

The network will use cabled Multiprotocol Label Switching, a protocol agnostic mechanism for data transport to enable fast network access across the campus. The network will be supplemented by a Wi-Fi mesh network for unified communications. The idea is to help carers review patients and communicate with their families without having to schedule face-to-face meetings.

The new hospital will as well use radio frequency identification research to track medical equipment just as scanners, ultrasound equipment and defibrillators.