Healthcare network executives are discovering that wireless access to data can have a dramatic effect in boosting the number of patients served, improving quality of physician diagnosis, and speeding payments and billing cycles.

Wireless and mobile technologies are top spending priorities for healthcare organizations, according to a recent report from Forrester Research. Although wireless LANs have been used in hospitals for some time, the rollouts are getting bigger, and the applications are more sophisticated. Several factors are spurring this trend:

Administrators and physicians view these developments as a foundation for improved efficiencies in billing and quality of patient care, says Rick Shoup, vice president of healthcare solutions for management consultancy Infosys.

"One of our [healthcare] customers told me recently, 'We lose millions and millions of dollars each year because we don't accurately capture data about tests that have been ordered or other services,' " he says.

Wireless LANs can let staff with handheld computers instantly record all charges and update billing databases. But in many cases, return on investment takes second place behind improved patient care.

Doctors and related professionals increasingly are pushing for the most current and accurate patient information. To get it, they have to be able to access hospital databases and records via wireless LANs coupled with handheld devices.

"Our entire clinical perspective on wireless has changed," says Michael Minear, CIO for the University of Maryland Medical System in Baltimore. "It used to be a 'Buck Rogers' [science fiction] kind of thing. Now, it's a fundamental part of every discussion about clinical information technology."

The organization was one of the first to deploy a newly designed mobile version of Cerner's Cerner Millennium clinical application suite on Tablet PCs and handhelds. "We're one of the few hospitals doing wireless synchronization [directly] with the laboratory databases," CIO Michael Minear says. "A physician walks in the front door, switches on the PDA, and in 5 to 7 minutes, he has the latest data on patients, including lab results."

Although the hospital uses Enterasys Networks' 802.11b wireless LAN access points, Minear planned the architecture as if he were deploying the shorter-range 802.11a wireless LAN. "When 802.11a technology comes out [and we decide to deploy it], we can just unplug the 802.11b cards and replace them with 802.11a cards," he says. The facility will save money by not having to position new access points or run cabling or electricity to them.