Case Study: Cook Children's Healthcare System achieves 97% bedside medication scan rate and campus-wide medical-grade wireless with Black Box Network Services

Cook Children’s vision of a more comprehensive wireless solution addresses both present and future needs

Cook Children’s Healthcare System, a 428‑bed pediatric integrated delivery network in Fort Worth, faced inadequate VoIP and cellular communications, Wi‑Fi interference, and costly, fragmented legacy wireless networks that disrupted mobile clinical workflows and patient services. To build a hospital‑owned, mission‑critical Medical Grade Wireless Utility (MGWU), Cook Children’s engaged Black Box Network Services to design a comprehensive, multi‑carrier wireless infrastructure.

Black Box Network Services surveyed the campus, optimized frequencies, and consolidated disparate systems into the MGWU to support 4G cellular, Wi‑Fi, medical telemetry, pagers, two‑way radio and public‑safety communications, with segmented WLANs to isolate guest, enterprise and life‑critical traffic. The solution enabled reliable Vocera VoIP integration, handled more than a 1,000% growth in device density, expanded coverage from the initial 400,000 sq. ft. North Tower to over 1M sq. ft. of planned coverage (including 600,000+ sq. ft. added), and helped Cook Children’s achieve a bedside medication verification scan rate above 97%.

Cook Children’s Healthcare System

Michael Zachary

Director, IT Enterprise Architecture