CASE STUDY · ST JOHN OF GOD HOSPITAL GROUP
Independent WiFi 6 site survey across 16 Australian hospitals.
St John of God Hospital Group engaged Liveport for an independent third-party WiFi 6 assessment and RTLS-ready network design across all 16 of its Australian acute-care facilities. Six months. Ekahau Pro. No vendor influence.
16
Hospitals surveyed
6 months
Project duration
3 states
WA · NSW · VIC
RTLS-ready
Future-state design
Validate WiFi 6 deployment across a 16-hospital network and prepare it for Real-Time Location Services.
St John of God Hospital Group is one of Australia’s leading private healthcare providers. Its 16-hospital network spans Perth, Sydney, Melbourne, Ballarat, Bendigo, Geelong and Warrnambool, across Western Australia, New South Wales and Victoria.
The group had embarked on a WiFi 6 modernisation program. They needed an independent, vendor-neutral wireless specialist to validate the deployment, optimise the new infrastructure for clinical operations, and prepare every facility for future Real-Time Location Services (RTLS), asset tracking, patient flow monitoring, staff duress.
The requirement was specific: not selling hardware, not selling managed services. Recommendations had to be based purely on technical fit and clinical operational need.
01
The challenge
Healthcare WiFi runs five mission-critical jobs at once.
Every hospital in the group had to support electronic medical records, patient monitoring, telehealth video calls, mobile clinical workstations and visiting-clinician roaming. All on the same wireless infrastructure. All without disruption to 24/7 clinical operations.
The RF environment fights you at every floor. Multiple ward levels, diverse construction materials, lead-lined imaging suites and operating theatres that absorb signal, and hundreds of concurrent wireless devices per facility, mobile workstations, tablets, medical equipment, staff phones.
RTLS adds another layer. Asset tracking and patient location accuracy of 3-5 metres requires higher AP density and specialised configuration patterns, including monitor-mode corner APs, that most generic deployments don’t account for.
And the assessment itself had to happen without disrupting patient care. No taking a ward out of service. No interfering with infection control or clinical staff.
02
The method
Ekahau Pro across every facility. Three-tier recommendations.
Liveport conducted comprehensive WiFi site surveys across all 16 hospitals using Ekahau Pro and Sidekick, the industry-standard wireless design and validation platform, over a six-month engagement.
Every facility received a complete wireless assessment: full coverage analysis from ground floor to top floor, parking and outdoor patient areas, building perimeters, and detailed validation of operating theatres, emergency departments, ICUs and patient wards. RF spectrum analysis, AP density evaluation, device performance and roaming behaviour across clinical workflows.
Tier 01
Configuration optimisation
Maximise existing hardware via expert channel planning, transmit-power tuning, band-steering and SSID configuration. The cheapest tier, and often enough on its own.
Tier 02
Targeted coverage enhancement
Strategic infrastructure adjustments for specific coverage gaps in clinical zones, combined with full configuration optimisation.
Tier 03
Full RTLS wireless design
Real-Time Location Services implementation, high-density AP deployments, monitor-mode corner APs, configuration tuned for 3-5m location accuracy.
Configuration recommendations covered 802.11r fast roaming, band-steering, QoS prioritisation for clinical applications, RTLS-specific high-density patterns, and channel planning to minimise co-channel interference across the wider campus.
03
The outcome
Validated WiFi 6. RTLS-ready. Independent documentation across all 16 sites.
St John of God came out of the engagement with first-time comprehensive infrastructure documentation across all 16 sites, every AP location mapped, standardised labelling across the group, complete asset inventory, and visual heat maps showing coverage and capacity by ward.
Each hospital had a flexible implementation roadmap. Some chose configuration optimisation alone, getting more from the hardware they already had. Others took targeted coverage enhancement. Several committed to full RTLS readiness as part of their longer-term clinical-mobility strategy.
Platform-wide outcomes included reliable telehealth connectivity across all 16 facilities, seamless device mobility for clinicians moving between wards, an optimised RF environment with balanced transmit power and 802.11r fast roaming, and the foundation laid for asset tracking, patient flow monitoring, staff duress and environmental monitoring.
Independent third-party assessment of this kind isn’t just about validating what’s there. It’s about giving operators the unbiased, vendor-neutral evidence they need to make data-driven infrastructure decisions across a complex, multi-site network, without the integrator who’s selling them hardware also being the one validating it.
“Liveport doesn’t sell hardware or managed services on hospital projects. Recommendations are sized to clinical needs and budget, not to a sales target.”
Liveport hospital practice principle
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Want an independent assessment of your hospital network?
Liveport runs vendor-neutral WiFi assessments for Australian hospital and aged-care groups. We don’t sell hardware on these engagements, recommendations are tied to clinical operations and budget, not a sales target.