Hospital do Coração do Brasil (HCBr) and Hospital Santa Luzia (HSL) are located in Brasília, Brazil’s capital. The hospitals are regional leaders in quality and service and form part of the D’Or São Luiz network, the largest network of private hospitals in Latin America.
Separated by a corridor, the hospitals suffered from poor cellular signal quality for external and internal communication between medical staff and patients.
THE D’OR SÃO LUIZ NETWORK BY THE NUMBERS
36 owned hospitals and 1 under management (Israelita)
5,500 operating beds
40,800 collaborators
87,000 accredited doctors
3,470,000 emergency calls per year
373,000 admissions per year
238,000 surgeries per year
269,000 births per year
Hospital do Coração do Brasil (HCBr): experts in cardiovascular disease
Founded in 2007, HCBr specializes in cardiac and vascular pathologies. The hospital includes a surgical center, Cardiology ICU, 24-hour cardiovascular emergency center, and medical clinic. It also offers advanced exams that involve state-of-the-art technologies. The HCBr is certified in excellence by the International Society for Quality in Healthcare (ISQua). The walkway that connects the HCBr to Hospital Santa Luzia allows for increased support for other specialties and makes the procurement of services even more complete.
Hospital Santa Luzia (HSL): specialists in high-complexity cases
Over the years, HSL has solidified its status as the standard-setting hospital in the nation. Founded in the early 70s, the hospital specialized in otolaryngology, ophthalmology, and maternity services. Today, their specialization has increased to other segments, such as breast cancer, pediatrics, proctology, and urology, among many others.
QMC: the ideal partner for improved connectivity
Lacking an indoor connectivity network, the hospitals needed a cellular coverage solution guaranteed not to interfere with medical equipment. As a solution, QMC Telecom implemented an active multi-operator Distributed Antenna System (DAS) that connected the two hospitals and offered 100% cellular coverage in fewer than 6 months.
The system, called Centralized DAS (C-DAS), is a solution that optimizes the carrier’s infrastructure as a network extension without compromising the DAS. In essence, a C-DAS expands the coverage of a carrier’s network without the need for additional investments.
In the case of the hospitals’ coverage, a single QMC equipment room, located outside the Hospital Santa Luzia, delivers complete connectivity to the two buildings. The entire fiber-optic structure was implemented by QMC to support data traffic to the Hospital do Coração. Small antennas were placed in areas such as the ground floor, basement, cafeterias, ICUs, technical areas, and among other places with larger traffic of people.
250,000 sq ft of covered area
Total antennas: 228 (75 at HSL and 73 at HCBr)
Remote Units: 16 (10 at HSL and 6 at HCbr)
Sectors: 6 (3 in each hospital)
MIMO 2×2
11,000 annual surgeries
150,000 annual emergency calls
21,000 hospitalizations per year
Challenges
QMC’s solution was installed at various points throughout the hospital, enabling a quality cellular connection to reach all floors of the buildings, with low levels of radiation to accommodate the most sensitive areas. The signal reaching the hospitals is not harmful to human health and does not cause pathological damage. As an additional safety measure, QMC ensured that the signal frequencies were different from those emitted by hospital devices, such as MRI machines.
From design to implementation, the QMC team was responsible for mapping out the areas and organizing the installation of the antennas so that they did not impact hospital operations.
Monitoring
The C-DAS is connected to QMC’s Global Network Operation Center (NOC), which allows visibility into all systems and monitoring of service operations. The NOC ensures that the infrastructure operates at the best possible quality and capacity through reports and dashboards, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
In the Client’s Words:
“At first, we were very concerned about the implementation due to the high-paced nature of the hospital environment. However, we were positively surprised by the lack of inconvenience. The entire QMC team is highly trained and has displayed a commitment to not interfering or generating disturbances outside the standards allowed by the DOR NETWORK. Both doctors and patients noticed the improved connectivity in the buildings. We would recommend QMC as a partner, as the entire process was highly satisfactory and did not introduce complications during the installation,” said Adriano de Freitas Rosado, Project Manager – Regional DF/BA of the D’Or São Luiz Network.
