Page 181 - Introduction to Electronic Commerce and Social Commerce

162 5 Innovative EC Systems: From E-Government to E-Learning, Knowledge Management, E-Health, and C2C Commerce

the technology, legal issues, prices, and business alliances corridors (a multiple year project). The solution also included
associated with its site. Each team will then prepare a penetration of information flow in lead walls and through six
report answering the question, “Will e-books succeed?” foot concrete shelters. In addition, the solution enabled con-
(Read Nuwer 2016). necting with the many brands of mobile devices belonging to
7. Each team is assigned a question-and-answer company patients and visitors. The system covers over 60 sites of
(e.g., answers.com, ask.com). Check the company’s offer- HFHS in many locations. Overall, more than seven million
ings, including social networking/games. Present your square feet of facilities are covered. In 2016, there were over
findings. 3200 access points and 1200 security sensors. In addition to
the Wi-Fi, the HFHS is using several e-commerce informa-
tion systems such as Philips’ CareSage predictive analytics
CLOSING CASE: HENRY FORD HEALTH and 3M 360 Encompass system.
SYSTEM PROVIDES SUPERIOR PATIENT
EXPERIENCE USING IT AND E-COMMERCE
The Results
Henry Ford Health System (HFHS) is a comprehensive health
system that provides care to 2.2 million patients annually in The success of Wi-Fi was featured in a best practice article in
Metro Detroit and several other cities. The HFHS complex the “Association for the Advancement of Medical Instru-
includes five medical centers and 24,000 employees. mentation.” Patient satisfaction has increased drastically and
so has the productivity and quality of the hospital’s employ-
ees and the physicians. The networks also enable members
The Challenges of the community to access the educational material dissemi-
nated by the hospital. The Wi-Fi enables the biomedical
The system’s mission is to support the communication and devices to operate smoothly, to enable safe access to all
collaboration of the mobile employees, patients, insurers, needed information, and to facilitate communication, col-
physicians, visitors and vendors, and to assure the operation laboration, and team work. All these were done while meet-
of the many mobile biomedical devices. HFHS needed a ing all compliance requirements.
massive electronic network. Furthermore, it was necessary Sources: Based on Extreme Networks (2015) and Philips
to support the patient data flow, some of which is in real Electronics PHG Company (2016).
time (data accessibility at point of care). All this required
continued availability with protection of privacy and secu- Questions
rity. The challenges include the support of a multitude of 1. Why was Wi-Fi the only reasonable solution?
mobile devices that patients and visitors bring with them. In 2. Why was this project so complex?
addition, the mobile and biomedical devices are from many 3. What are the major benefits? To whom?
manufacturers and are used for many applications (e.g., X-ray
carts, IV pumps, mobile ultrasound, and EKG machines).
Parts of the medical facilities are within six foot concrete ONLINE FILES
walls which made radio frequency (RF) penetration difficult.
The hospital needed a wall-to-wall coverage by wireless Available at ecommerce-introduction-textbook.com
connection that would work without interferences and enable
a large volume of wireless traffic. W5.1 E-Government Social Media Activities in New Zealand
W5.2 The Stages of E-Government Transformation
W5.3 Application Case: Knowledge Sharing as a Strategic
The Solution Asset at Caterpillar Inc.

HFHS decided to install an advanced Wi-Fi system. This
required experimentation with different software and hard- REFERENCES
ware and with the locations and numbers of Wi-Fi access
points. Behr, A. “MocaCare’s Latest Health Monitor tracks Blood Pressure,
Oxygen Levels.” eWeek, February 8, 2016.
The resultant solution enabled the integration of over Britt, P. “E-Commerce Buys into KM.” October 2013. kmworld.com/
3500 biomedical devices into the Wi-Fi network. This Articles/Editorial/Features/E-commerce-buys-into-KM-92023.
required collaboration with those that are purchasing the aspx (accessed March 2016).
devices. To support the wireless, it was necessary to bring Brown, A., J. Fishenden, and M. Thompson. Digitizing Government:
access point antennas in over 90 elevators and many stairway Understanding and Implementing New Digital Business Models