VoIP, network overhaul brings hospital savings, unified communications

A year ago, the Ottawa, Ill.-based center was running an analog phone system fed by T-1s and a separate 10/100 Ethernet data network that wouldn't support an IP phone system let alone the battery of high-bandwidth medical applications that are becoming more and more necessary, says Curt Sesto, director of facilities, construction management and electronics for the center.

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Now, Ottawa Regional has installed a 10G bps fiber ring on its 31-acre campus and is in the midst of switching over all its phones to IP with the capacity to turn on unified communications (UC) features, he says. The ring, which is owned and maintained by Ottawa Regional, eliminates a slew of point-to-point AT&T T-1 lines that connected the eight buildings on the campus, he says.

The aging 14-year-old Siemens-ROLM PBX has been replaced with a VoIP service outsourced to Siemens that is based on Siemens gear in Level 3 Communications collocation facilities. For $40 per user per month, the integrator/outsourcing firm PosTrack provides a fiber link and T-1 backup to the VoIP servers, including all phone usage charges, Sesto says.

When he arrived last December, his marching order from the CEO was to get a new phone system right away. "It had been on his radar for a couple of years," he says. One goal was to get rid of the estimated $28,000 per year maintenance cost of the PBXs, for which it was getting increasingly harder to find parts as they grew older. "They could go toes-up at any time," he says.