Hunan Chenzhou Jiahe Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) has completed wireless network upgrade with AINOPOL, building reliable, isolated and compliant Wi‑Fi for mobile medical services and patient guest access.

Nestled in the rolling hills of southern Hunan lies Jiahe County. Jiahe Hospital of TCM, founded in 1956, is a county-level TCM hospital integrating medical treatment, disease prevention, emergency care, rehabilitation, research and teaching. It operates both old and new campuses on a total site area of 100 mu with 19 clinical departments and 800 hospital beds.

As one of Chenzhou’s first Grade 2A TCM hospitals and having passed the on-site evaluation for Grade 3 TCM hospital accreditation, it features provincial key specialties including encephalopathy, orthopedics, cardiovascular medicine, and cervical/lumbar pain therapy. The hospital serves as a core TCM diagnosis and rehabilitation hub for Jiahe and surrounding regions.

With growing local medical demand, hospital informatization is moving closer to the bedside. To enable true mobile ward rounds and mobile nursing, while providing stable internet access for inpatients and visitors, the hospital recently launched a wireless network expansion project. The brand-new Wi-Fi network has now been deployed across wards.

I. Three Core Challenges for Hospital Networks in the Mobile Medical Era

As a county-level TCM hospital serving local residents in southern Hunan, Jiahe Hospital of TCM faces three critical requirements while building smart medical infrastructure:

1. No disconnection for mobile ward rounds & nursing
   Medical staff use PDAs to move freely across wards, retrieve electronic medical records, input medical orders and scan traceability codes at the bedside. Network outages or poor roaming directly hurt clinical efficiency and medication safety.
2. Strict isolation between internal and external networks, no cross-domain access
   Visitor Wi-Fi and hospital business intranet coexist. Physical isolation is mandatory to block external network access to medical business systems and protect sensitive medical data.
3. Real-name authentication and log retention as compliance bottom line
   Public guest Wi-Fi must implement real-name authentication, internet log archiving and session duration control to meet hospital cybersecurity governance requirements.

II. Targeted Network Deployment to Solve All Three Challenges

The three requirements boil down to full coverage with seamless roaming, clear security boundaries and traceable internet logs. AINOPOL designed a unified architecture tailored to campus layout and medical workflows.

1. Optimized AP placement & channel planning for seamless mobility
   ZH-AP30006S-M wireless access points are deployed in public zones. Based on building layout, corridor routes and staff movement patterns, engineers completed site survey, AP positioning and channel planning. Overlapping coverage eliminates dead zones while preventing signal interference. A unified SSID enables seamless roaming across corridors, waiting halls and wards. PDAs automatically switch access points without manual intervention. Electronic medical record pages stay stable, supporting uninterrupted order entry and QR code scanning.
2. Dual independent networks, isolated guest access
   The hospital business intranet and visitor internet are separated physically as two independent transmission paths, blocking external access to medical systems at the link layer. Guest Wi-Fi for patients and families runs on a dedicated VLAN with separate broadcast domains and IP subnets. Access policies are distributed via the network according to VLAN, fundamentally isolating guest traffic from hospital business systems. It delivers good internet experience for patients while securing medical data.
3. Gateway egress control: one-stop real-name authentication and log management
   Mengxiang M1 security multi-service gateway is deployed at the campus egress. It integrates NGFW, IPS and WAF for powerful threat filtering and external attack prevention.

When patients and family connect to guest Wi-Fi, they are redirected to a built-in Portal authentication page with customizable branding. Multiple authentication methods including WeChat and mobile phone number are supported to enforce real-name access. Administrators can control internet duration and bandwidth by ward, user and time window.

Internet behaviour logs are stored locally on the gateway for six months, satisfying log retention and traceability requirements stipulated under Ministry of Public Security Order No.176. Logs can be retrieved anytime for official inspections, while online user count and abnormal sessions are visible on a single management dashboard for daily O&M.

Once the infrastructure is in place, the hospital runs on a more stable foundation.

On the surface, PDAs held by clinicians remain always-on at bedsides. Electronic medical records are instantly accessible, orders can be entered on the spot, and traceability codes scan reliably, ending the frustration of disconnection around corners. Patients and families browse videos and check medical reports on guest Wi-Fi without interfering with medical services, while the hospital business intranet remains safely isolated. Internet logs are archived monthly, ready for audits with no last-minute document preparation.

Beneath the surface, this unified network supports two core missions: reliable medical services and compliant guest internet access.

As the invisible optical network settles into the hospital, medical staff can focus on patient care rather than troubleshooting terminals. This wireless upgrade for Jiahe Hospital of TCM safeguards not only wireless signals, but also peace of mind behind every clinical treatment.