Case Study: Henry Ford Health System achieves pervasive, secure 24/7 Wi‑Fi and improved patient care with Extreme Networks

Showcase in Providing a Superior Patient Experience Through Wi-Fi Technology

Henry Ford Health System, a large integrated not‑for‑profit health system serving millions of patients across five main medical centers and dozens of clinics, needed reliable, wall‑to‑wall Wi‑Fi to support a 20,000‑user Epic EHR rollout, BYOD and patient access, hundreds of biomedical devices, and strict HIPAA/security requirements — all while overcoming RF challenges from lead/concrete walls and large atriums. To meet these needs HFHS partnered with Extreme Networks, deploying ExtremeWireless and Extreme Access Control alongside vendor and SI support.

Extreme Networks delivered a redundant ExtremeWireless architecture (approximately 3,200 access points, 1,200 WIPS sensors and 12 controllers — six c5110a and six c4110s running as active‑active pairs), plus centralized policy via Extreme Access Control, to provide continuous 24x7 coverage and sub‑one‑second failover. The deployment covers over 7 million sq. ft., onboarded 20,000 Epic users without incident, reduced controllers from 16 to 12, met wireless SLAs, maintained HIPAA compliance, improved patient experience scores, and delivered predictable OpEx and scalable device support.

Henry Ford Health System

Nancy M. Schlichting

Chief Executive Officer