APRIL 4, 2017 – The diagnosis is good for expanded WiFi access at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center (LRMC) and Army Health Clinics in Belgium, Germany and Italy.
The March 20, 2017, upgrade at LRMC marked the beginning of a Regional Health Command (RHCE) initiative to provide guest WiFi to patients and family members at all RHCE military treatment facilities, said Lt. Col. Adam Peters, Chief of the Information Management Division at LRMC. The upgrade at LRMC expanded upon prior access to inpatient areas, the pharmacy and emergency department waiting areas as well as the Medical Transient Detachment and the Fisher Houses.
Following a smooth test implementation at the clinics in Stuttgart and Wiesbaden, WiFi, an acronym for “wireless fidelity”, was successfully installed during March in Ansbach, Grafenwöhr, Hohenfels, Kleber and Vicenza. After some network upgrades, the WiFi is scheduled to go live in April at Army Health Clinics in Baumholder and Vilseck, and then in May at Brussels and SHAPE.
“It’s great to see this come together,” said Peters. “This is the culmination of two years of hard work punching through all of the necessary hurdles to deploy a dependable and secure service to the RHCE beneficiaries. Ken Trawick, the Senior Network Engineer, designed and deployed the network. Barb Darabos, Landstuhl Cyber Security Chief, and John Hobbie, the RHCE Information Assurance Network Manager, ensured the security of the system and privacy to our beneficiaries would be uncompromised. Paul Kennedy, the Regional IT Program Manager, and Lt. Col. John Gao-ay, RHCE G6, provided leadership throughout and pulled this all together.”