Bronx-based nursing care facility collaborates with Lightpath to design 100 percent fiber network that supports cloud-based access to digital records and improves service reliability.
JERICHO, NY, February 5, 2013 – Lightpath®, a market leader in Ethernet-based communication solutions for New York metropolitan area businesses, is supporting next-generation healthcare needs for Kings Harbor Multicare Center. The Bronx, New York-based nursing care facility worked with Lightpath to design a redundant, 100 percent fiber network that would enable it to continue using existing analog equipment, but also support necessary access to digital patient records hosted remotely.
Kings Harbor Multicare Center’s primary, 720-bed facility in the Bronx is supported by more than 1,000 staff. As the organization migrated from internal servers to cloud-based electronic medical records (EMR) systems, reliable telecommunications services became of paramount importance. Kings Harbor collaborated with Lightpath to design a new network to replace its legacy copper-based voice and data connections. The Lightpath network provides complete redundancy for reliability, and is compatible with Kings Harbor’s backup generators, and analog-based phone and alarm systems.
“When it was time to choose a new telecommunications provider, Lightpath’s premium customer service was as much a deciding factor as the quality of its network,” said Kenneth Scharf, Chief Information Officer, Kings Harbor Multicare Center. “For any issue we may have, I know exactly who I can call within the company to help get me to a resolution. You can’t put a price tag on that given how important communications is to a healthcare organization like ours. Further, the performance of the Lightpath network is solid and has held up under some very severe conditions.”
Kings Harbor is located in a section of the Bronx that was hit hard by Superstorm Sandy. For a full week, the organization was without power and had to rely on backup generators to keep the facility running. The Lightpath network stayed up for the duration of the power outage, enabling Kings Harbor to communicate as needed throughout the storm and continue providing care.
“We are so pleased with how our network performed during and in the aftermath of the storm,” said Scharf. “Additionally, even though our network was up, we were still getting proactive calls from Lightpath asking if we had everything we needed. Our relationship with the company is unlike any we’ve had with a utilities provider.”
Moving forward, Kings Harbor is planning an increase in bandwidth to continue keeping pace with healthcare technology demands. Given the flexibility of the Lightpath Internet Voice Bundle product the organization uses, making a change will be almost instantaneous and not require any intrusive network equipment upgrades or maintenance.
“Lightpath strives to understand what our customers need and how each of them work so we can truly deliver on our promise of outstanding service and network quality,” said Julia McGrath, senior vice president of marketing and business development for Lightpath. “We look forward to continuing to work in collaboration with Kings Harbor as their infrastructure evolves and demands even more support from Lightpath and our network.”
Lightpath has named Kings Harbor Multicare Center its Customer Spotlight of the Month for February 2013. For more information about Lightpath, visit www.golightpath.com.
About Lightpath
Lightpath, a division of Cablevision Systems Corporation (NYSE:CVC, news, filings), is an industry leader in providing advanced Ethernet-based data, Internet, voice, video transport solutions and managed services to businesses across the New York metropolitan area. Lightpath’s Network is a highly reliable, resilient, and scalable fiber-to-the-business-premises network extending more than 5,000 route miles connecting more than 5,500 fiber-lit locations. Exclusively focused on meeting customer needs in the world’s largest business market for 20 years, Lightpath has been continually recognized for its high level of customer service. For 14 straight years, the New York State Public Service Commission has given Lightpath its Commendation of Excellence. Lightpath has received many industry awards for innovation and leadership, including being named North American Regional Service Provider of the Year by MEF (Metro Ethernet Forum). For more information, visit www.golightpath.com.
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