Toronto Hospitals Deploy Nortel VoIP Solutions

July 9, 2002 -- Networking equipment builder Nortel Networks (NortelNetworks.com) announced on Tuesday that Toronto’s St. Michael’s and Mount Sinai Hospitals have deployed Succession Enterprise voice over IP solutions from Nortel in order to accommodate their growing communications needs.

Nortel says it helped St. Michael’s use its existing technology equipment and migrate to a converged IP network. Mount Sinai opted for a pure-IP Succession Enterprise solution. The different approaches, says Nortel, highlight the versatility of the company’s VoIP portfolio.

"We recognize that the technology we needed, for clinical systems, sending electronic medical records or leveraging voice over IP, required that we have a robust infrastructure in place," says John Wegener, chief information officer, St. Michael’s. "[Information and Communication Technology company] Getronics provides us with this network infrastructure under a utility model, where they own and manage the network, and we pay for it on a per-active-port basis. To complement this, we selected Nortel Networks converged voice over IP solution."

Mt. Sinai Hospital’s pure IP solution is based on i2004 Internet Telephones, Nortel Networks Succession Communication Server for Enterprise 1000, Nortel Networks Passport 8600 Routing Switches and Nortel Networks Business Policy Switch.

"We were seeking a comprehensive, fully integrated IP solution and selected Nortel Networks Succession Enterprise solutions on the basis of demonstrated success in both voice and data infrastructure," says Dr. Lynn Nagle, chief information officer, Mount Sinai Hospital. "In addition we felt that the Nortel Networks solution could be easily integrated with and sustain the functionality of our existing voice and data systems."