Update: This network remains in service at the Royal Melbourne Hospital. For Liveport’s current healthcare connectivity and managed WiFi services, see our hospital WiFi and aged care WiFi pages.
Royal Melbourne Hospital, clinical-grade WiFi assessment across three campuses.
Liveport delivered an independent WiFi assessment for Melbourne Health across the Royal Melbourne Hospital campuses. The existing wireless estate, 915 access points carrying 1,600 point-of-care devices into an EMR rollout, was reviewed against clinical operational requirements rather than generic enterprise WiFi metrics. Surgical “reduce APs not add” remediation framing, the right answer for clinical environments is rarely “more hardware”. Vendor-agnostic: Liveport sold the assessment, not the access points.
Three phases. Independent at every step.
Melbourne Health was preparing for an EMR (Electronic Medical Records) rollout across 1,600 point-of-care devices and needed certainty that the existing 915-access-point estate could carry it. Liveport assessed what was actually there, modelled what was needed for clinical workflows, and told the truth, even when that truth was “you have too many APs in the wrong places, not too few.”
Assessment of existing wireless
Independent active site survey across three campuses, Jane Bell House, Royal Melbourne City Campus, Royal Park, plus remote sites. Spectrum analysis, channel-plan review, AP placement audit against clinical mobility requirements.
Application-specific design analysis
EMR workstations, point-of-care devices and clinical voice each have different wireless requirements. Liveport modelled the design against each application’s actual needs, not a one-size enterprise heatmap.
Surgical remediation, not blanket refresh
Recommendation: reduce AP count where co-channel interference was hurting clinical workflows, reposition APs to align with PoC routes, validate fast-roaming for voice. Three-tier roadmap, configuration optimisation, targeted enhancement, full deployment, costed transparently.
Assess what’s there. Model what’s needed. Tell the truth either way.
Melbourne Health is one of Australia’s leading public healthcare providers, delivering services through Royal Melbourne Hospital, NorthWestern Mental Health and the Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory. With an EMR rollout in flight, 1,600 point-of-care devices needing reliable WiFi and a 915-access-point estate already in place, the question was simple: is what’s in the ceiling the right answer, or has it grown the wrong way? Most consulting engagements default to “add more APs”. Liveport’s role was to assess what was actually there, model what was needed, and tell the truth even if the truth was uncomfortable.
Phase 1, Active site survey across three campuses
Liveport completed an active Ekahau survey across Jane Bell House, the Royal Melbourne City Campus, Royal Park and the remote sites. Spectrum analysis flagged 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz interference. Channel plans were reviewed against clinical mobility patterns rather than generic open-plan office assumptions. Dead zones, capacity gaps and AP placement issues were identified, and crucially, the existing roaming behaviour was baselined. In a clinical environment, roaming matters: a clinician on a voice handset or a PoC device pushed between wards cannot tolerate dropped sessions between two APs.
Phase 2, Application-specific design analysis
The design analysis was driven by application requirements, not a single coverage curve. EMR workstations need consistent throughput, not high density. Point-of-care devices need reliable roaming, not raw speed. Clinical voice needs 802.11r/k/v fast roaming, sub-50 ms handoff between APs, not just signal strength. Different applications, different requirements. The existing 915-AP estate was modelled against each one, and the gaps were specific: not “need more coverage” but “need different placement, different power, different channel plan, and fast-roaming validated end-to-end.”
Phase 3, Surgical remediation
The recommendation surprised people: reduce, don’t add. Where co-channel interference was actively hurting clinical workflows, AP count came down. APs were repositioned to align with point-of-care device routes, not against an architectural floor plan. Fast-roaming was validated for clinical voice. The deliverable was a three-tier roadmap: configuration optimisation as the immediate fix, targeted enhancement where coverage genuinely needed help, and full deployment scoped only where the existing estate couldn’t be re-tuned to do the job. Each tier costed transparently so Melbourne Health could decide based on outcome and budget, not a vendor’s preferred sale.
“More APs” is the easy recommendation. It’s also wrong more often than the industry admits. Co-channel interference, AP placement against PoC device routes, application-specific roaming requirements, none of those are solved by adding hardware. Sometimes the right answer is reduce. Liveport’s vendor-neutral position is what lets us say that., Liveport engineering principle
Six deliverables. All owned by the operator.
- Independent assessment across three campusesVendor-neutral active survey across Jane Bell House, Royal Melbourne City Campus, Royal Park and remote sites, measured against clinical workflows, not generic enterprise WiFi.
- 915-AP estate audited against actual clinical use casesExisting infrastructure measured against EMR workstation throughput, point-of-care roaming and clinical voice fast-roaming requirements rather than a single coverage curve.
- 1,600 PoC device requirements modelled into designPoint-of-care device routes, density and roaming behaviour mapped to AP placement and channel plan, the design followed the clinical workflow, not the floor plan.
- Counterintuitive recommendation: reduce, don’t addWhere co-channel interference was hurting workflows, AP count came down. The right answer for clinical wireless is rarely more hardware, and an independent assessor is the only party with no incentive to sell more boxes.
- Documented evidence usable beyond the projectReports usable for clinical IT governance, accreditation conversations and capital planning. The operator owns the document, no vendor lock-in on the deliverable.
- Continuing relationship, vendor-neutral by designLiveport’s vendor-agnostic position let Melbourne Health treat the assessment as a procurement input, not a sales pitch, and meant the engagement could continue without conflict on the install side.
“Liveport’s vendor-neutral assessment gave us the evidence we needed to push back on a default recommendation that would have added thirty more APs. Reducing and repositioning hardware was the right answer for our clinical environments.”, Alan Napier, Project Director, Melbourne Health
An EMR-grade clinical WiFi assessment Melbourne Health can defend.
Vendor-neutral. Documented. Reusable for clinical IT governance, accreditation and capital planning, independent of whoever ends up holding the install contract.
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Considering a network refurb, EMR rollout, or post-incident review?
Phone us on 1800 830 302 or request an independent assessment scope. Liveport engineers based in Torquay, Victoria. Hospital, aged care and clinical wireless work delivered nationally since 2008.
