New Optical Networking Services for Children's Hospital & Research Center Oakland

AT&T Inc. today announced a new optical networking services contract with Children's Hospital & Research Center Oakland, the only independent children's hospital in Northern California. Under the terms of the three-year contract, AT&T will be the primary provider and will deliver AT&T OPT-E-MAN(R) service to the main campus and its four remote locations throughout the Bay Area.

AT&T OPT-E-MAN service is a highly scalable, switched, fiber-optic, point- to-multipoint Ethernet service that connects multiple local area networks (LANs) within a regional area. The service will connect the main campus for Children's Hospital & Research Center Oakland with its remote locations and support the sharing of high-bandwidth clinical applications, such as electronic medical records (EMR) and pictorial archival communications systems (PACS). The AT&T OPT-E-MAN service will also enable pediatric patients to receive remote evaluations from specialists at Children's Hospital & Research Center Oakland, which improves patient satisfaction and safety.

The new solution will support secure and consistent network access for doctors, nurses and clinicians, who need readily available access to medical records, as well as information and resources used in making lifesaving decisions. The converged network infrastructure allows Children's Hospital & Research Center Oakland to realize increased reliability and faster access to critical medical applications and patient data for improved patient care.

"With patients located throughout the Bay Area, we needed a provider capable of delivering state-of-the-art technology to support our advanced medical applications and connect our doctors with patients at multiple locations under one network," said Doug Myers, chief financial officer, Children's Hospital & Research Center Oakland. "We are confident that the solution provided by AT&T will help sustain secure and reliable access for our doctors, nurses and clinicians to access current applications, such as EMR and PACS, which will help us to better serve our patients."