Infrastructure Considerations for Healthcare Environments

The ANSI/TIA-1179 standard enables the planning and installation of a structured cabling system for healthcare facilities and buildings. Within the healthcare environment, the ANSI/TIA-1179 standard addresses design topologies and cabling performance, pathways and spaces, and field testing instruments and measurements for balanced twisted-pair cabling. By establishing the performance and technical criteria for various cabling system configurations, the standard covers critical cabling infrastructure performance as well as special considerations specific to a hospital, such as space requirements, work area densities and redundancy. The standard also includes definitions and best practices for grounding, administration and cable installation.

According to the standard, “After the initial installation, adding or changing cabling could result in a net decrease in the quality of care provided, infection control measures or compromising life safety measures.” As an IT professional, providing technology services and integrating multiple departments’ clinical systems while maintaining compliance with hospital and government policies during implementation is essential to maintaining long-term patient care and satisfaction.

The ANSI/TIA-1179 standard was developed due to the diversity of the application environments within healthcare facilities and different design approaches need to be considered. Healthcare-specific considerations include:

• Wired and wireless infrastructure
• Properly delivering Power over Ethernet (PoE) in hospitals
• Providing enough bandwidth and density to specific clinical areas in the hospital
• Installation considerations (infection control and life safety).