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Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time
58 comments- TAGS:hospital, wireless
- IT TOPICS:Management, Mobile & Wireless, Networking
IT pilot fish at a rural hospital gets a call from a big medical equipment supplier's representative, who wants to know what frequencies the hospital's wireless equipment runs on.
"Naturally, I began asking who, why and what for," fish says. "I came to find out the facility had purchased a major system -- without notifying me.
"I eventually got all the information and immediately realized the enormous scope of the project."
That scope includes running miles of network cable and installing lots of wireless access points for the new equipment to talk to -- and it all has to happen in a very limited amount of time.
Fish decides it's time to talk with the hospital's CEO, who signed off on the purchase -- and, it turns out, had no idea it was going to be this complicated.
To the CEO's credit, once she sees the schematics and hears fish's complaints, she asks fish to schedule a conference call with the vendor.
On the call are the vendor's people, plus the CEO and three hospital department managers who are full of questions about the equipment in the project.
But fish isn't saying much, figuring it's a done deal.
Sighs fish, "In the middle of the call, the CEO asks, 'If we take away some of the wireless devices, do we still need the same amount of cable and access points?'
"All I could think was, oh no ... you didn't! The other end of the line got quiet for a full 30 seconds -- I think they were repressing laughter.
"Eventually the response was, 'Yes, you will still need the same amount of APs and cable.' I felt so embarrassed for her."
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