TRONIC1

Hi ttlyon,
Are you wanting to run centrex lines through your PBX or are you getting rid of the centrex lines all together? If you intend on getting rid of centrex all together then realize that you have alot of work ahead of you and many things to consider. It may be in your best interest to call in a telecom installer to at least do a site survey and advice you on which equipment would best serve your purpose. As for installing a phone system in a Hospital, there are some legal ramifications to consider. If your phone system is not installed and programmed to perfection the Hospital will be the ones held accountable. I'm wondering if this is why centrex lines were used in the first place since centrex stands for central office exchange which means that your service provider is (was) "RESPONSIBLE" for all but the most basic programming, there's your accountability. This is not to say you couldn't administor your own phone system, after all centrex lines can be quite expensive, just make sure your are as informed as possible before you take this (in my opinion) very large step. As for which make or model to buy, they all have thier pro's and con's.

MSYoung

This is what I did for a living in my last job and there is a lot of planning required to do it successfully. I can not give you an unbiased recommendation for PBX because all my experience is with Avaya. I can give some general ideas however.

Whoever you get the machine from make sure they have the knowledge and experience to do the entire job for you, not just install the PBX and then walk out the door leaving you to cut over.

What you will need to provide is a complete floorplan showing where every phone is located, what the number is on each phone, where every wiring closet is located, the jack numbers will be nice to know (otherwise each one will have to be identified manually by the installation team), the circuit IDs for every line coming into the hospital and where it terminates, there could be more but that is the minimum for a good cut. Be prepared to spend time discussing floor space, power requirements, and telephone features with the vendor.

The vendor should have several people at your site, one or more installing the PBX and one or more cruising through the hospital figuring a plan of attack for the actual cutover. There will be a person doing all the programming, you will talk to that person a lot.

Expect to have a service interruption when the cutover starts so plan for some phones to be in for emergency use, probably using some lines you already have. Coordinate this with your vendor. None of the hospitals I cut over could be done in the daytime always had to start in the evening, expect to still be working when the sun comes up the next day.

If special clearance is needed for certain areas get that arranged ahead of time, don't forget that operating rooms are sometimes considered special areas.

When selecting a system and vendor get them to give you some former customers phone numbers so you can call and find out how good a job they did. Select a vendor that has done larger jobs than yours, you don't want to get a vendor that has never done large jobs before.

Good luck!

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Marty

ttlyon

I will have to have my manager review the legal aspects of any contract we sign. Regarding why Centrex vVerizion sold it to them , many large hospitals have been on centrex and continue to do so.

We are getting references, healthcare ones etc. Will keep that in mind regarding the vendors.


We are looking at Avaya, Notrtel, Nec primarily. The vendor is responsible for the cut all the way through.

We are talking about tag and toning the entire hospital, doing a phased cutover, putting some centrex lines into the new PBX to facilitate 4 digit dialing throughout the cutover.

We are converting our centrex to did's on pri circuits.

We estimate a conservitive savings of $10K a month.

MSYoung

You have a good start so should be ok. Here the hospitals are about equally divided between Centrex and PBX. Probably depends on who did the better sales job.

__________________
Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup.

Marty

Bygcland

Our Company did a 900 station hospital not too long ago. We were replacing an old Rolm system that had been there for years. We also did the change over in phases. We put TIE t-1's between the Rolm and the Tadiran so no one would go with out phone service. We did run into some snags which were expected but other than that it was fine. We also had to get our circuits from Verizon which was a pain to say the least. Hospitals can be difficult but very rewarding after the fact. PM me if you would like to discuss some alternatives to your selection of PBX's. Just remember, just because you hear a PBX manufacturers name in commercials and all doesnt mean they are the best.

Rachelle

Just a few quick thoughts:
I work for a large federal agency and we went from 1000+ centrex lines to our own Nortel 81C. The cost savings has been huge, over the past 10 years. We have trained and certified staff onsite and that has added to our savings. We have a centralized cable infrastructure that allows our voice and data networks to flow together. This is a very large task. Plan, plan, and plan some more. Review the environment that this equipment will be located in.... don't cheap out. Safety, security, and redundancy are all aspects that you just can't emphasize enough.


rlc

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Merlin

Hi Guys,

I've been working and configuring Broadband VoIP system that enables service providers to quickly roll out residential and business IP Centrex/Hosted PBX services

Feel free to mail me for more details at Merlin@tcpmail.co.uk I'll be glad to help you

Best regards,
Merlin

sillejo

I think everyone is overlooking two major issues in a hospital enviornment. 1-Wireless mobile stations and WiFi communications then 2 - The seperate video costs of the ISDN lines that are sure to be eating up huge chunks of money each month.

With that I will tell you that replacing Centrex and putting in your own system will save you money even if you totally get taken by a contractor. The costs of Centrex are just out-of-bounds with regards to new IP Tel systems.

Go look at a product by Vocera Communications. We have 2 hospitals as clients and both use it in conjunction with the IP Tel system we installed (Cisco) We had started with WiFi phones from Cisco but the Vocera product offered a tone of functionality from login, to paging, to messaging all voice activated and using the same AP's that the mobile workstations were using. Encryption was very high and everything flowed right into the metadirectory project in IT.

The project will be huge no matter what you do, but if you spend your money on traditional PBX infrastructure this late in the life cycle, then you might as well keep the centrex for another year and wait until something else convinces you to go IP. I'm a Cisco guy, but I would rather have you put in Avaya IP Tel or even Mitel (though I would say they are not fitted for an outfit of your size) before seeing you handcuff the hospital with a traditional PBX for the next decade.

And the guy who wants to sell you Centrex IP........yeah, don't you think broadband VoIP is a bit of a streatch for 1000 hospital users with communication needs that require adherence to HIPPA regulations? Asking them to allow any network access to an IP Centrex provider will cause more security headaches than can be saved in administrative headaches of a hosted solution. IP Centrex is not mature enough to handle a project of this magnitude. Once the comm system is on the network the hospital will see all of the added benefits of network integration, data hooks, xml services, mobility, and quite uniquely, E911 ability of a system that can manage itself.