VoIP in a hospital???

[tnphoneman]

Would it be a wise decision to convert a hospital to VoIP completely instead of a PBX?

[dgahm]

Yes, a properly designed and implemented IP Telephony system can be just as reliable as any PBX. I say that coming from a strong PBX background with Nortel, Siemens, and Rolm experience.

[tnphoneman]

Yeah I currently work onsite and manage a Nortel PBX. We are starting to integrate some Cisco Call managers in remote areas. We also have Nortel VoIP sets and wireless sets. Seems to work fairly well so far. Some of my fellow employees who don't know that much about VoIP are worried that if they go VoIP that they will lose their jobs as we are contracted by the customer and they won't need us to manage VoIP when their IS dept can do it.

[paolo bevilacqua]

Managing VoIP and expecially IP telephony is quite a diffrent job than traditional networking.

But since the world is changing if I was a legacy PBX technician I would quickly try to learn IP telephony from a practical point of view at least.

There are times when in your job you have to learn really new things and this applies to everyone, doesn't ?

[Rob Huffman]

Hi Bryan,

This a fear that most traditional voice TDM techs have had at one time or another (myself included). When the idea of transitioning to VoIP first came up at our campus I thought it would do me out of a job. But really, there is a strong need for voice related skills with these implementations. So, in actuality, the work load didn't disappear it increased!

As far as migrating a hospital setting, perhaps running a hybrid Nortel/Cisco system is a good fit. We are doing this and the two systems work well together and allow you to move phones across to VoIP in a phased approach.We have left our trunking,PRI's,and all Emergency phones connected to the Nortel due mostly to the fact that we have a nice battery backup for it. Like David indicated, you can surely build a very reliable VoIP system that will achieve the 5-9's uptime of traditional voice systems.

Here is some related info;

Debunking the Myths of Unified Communications

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/netsol/ns641/networking_solutions_white_paper0900aecd80104370.shtml

Making the Business Case for IP Communications

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/netsol/ns641/networking_solutions_white_paper0900aecd802af229.shtml

Have alook at these Healthcare IP integrations;

The Cisco Interactive Healthcare Solution - centered on Cisco IP Communications systems - includes productivity applications, telemedicine, e-learning, and Communication Centers. Together, these solutions help healthcare providers improve staff productivity by helping to provide immediate access to colleagues and patient records while improving the quality and delivery of patient care by delivering critical information when and where it's needed.

From this doc;

http://newsroom.cisco.com/dlls/2004/prod_022304i.html

http://newsroom.cisco.com/dlls/2004/prod_022304h.html

So, I guess, what I am saying is, get some books take some courses and start sudying these forums. Remember "time waits for no one"

Take care!

Rob

[dgahm]

In my experience, there is often as much resistance from the router techs to learning telephony as there is from the telephone techs to learning routers. I doubt the IS department can do it, unless they have already embraced the change and done their homework.

Techs from either background can do well if they are willing to learn. To be successful with IP Telephony you need both skillsets -- and some Microsoft server and application ability won't hurt either.

[tnphoneman]

I am not that worried about it as I have been around the VoIP stuff for a little while now. I have also been studying for the CCNA and so on for a while now. I guess I started out more on the data side and then got on with the Telecom company and have now learned a lot about this side. So I think even if it went that way, I would be able to catch up very quickly. Now the other guys is a different story. They are traditional PBX guys and no close to nothing about data. That is why they are worried. The funny thing is though, they seem to always want to make fun of me when they see me studying for Cisco stuff....they will learn!!