When it comes to a stroke, every second matters.

Lee Memorial Hospital Systems (LMHS) located in North Fort Myers, Florida has taken that truism and has adapted it over their network of four acute care hospitals. With a goal of expanding stroke care services, LMHS needed to make sure that the hospitals and the physicians were all intelligently connected. This meant that if a patient was brought into one facility, he or she could be "seen" by an expert in another-without wasting time going from one place to another.

Cisco proposed a solution that included building a wireless infrastructure made up of products like the Cisco Industrial Wireless 3700 Access Point and Cisco Catalyst 3700, 3800 and 4500 Series Switches. Cisco deployed communication products that allowed patients and physicians to use the cutting-edge infrastructure and connect as if they were in the same room.

LMHS doctors are now able to quickly access patients' medical records and imaging systems from remote locations. This allows the patient to be diagnosed much faster than the previous way. LMHS staff also uses a mobile telestroke cart to allow medical care to come directly to the patient. The information that the cart takes is sent directly to the physician and the rest of the hospital staff, which is a real time saver.

On-call doctors don't even need to be near their office or hospital to treat a patient. If a need arises and a specialist is at home, that physician can be sent the patient's data where he or she can assess the patient and provide care instructions.

"Physicians at home can see the video and the CT scan that was taken two minutes ago," said Michael W. Smith, Chief Information Office at Lee Memorial Health System. "Sometimes that can make the difference between the patient walking out of the hospital or suffering a range of less desirable outcomes."

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