Building a Network to Support Healing at California’s Gateways Hospital and Mental Health Centers

In sunny Southern California, Gateways Hospital and Mental Health Center (“Gateways”) stands as a go-to resource and treatment center for some of the most challenging mental health disorders and illnesses. Carrying the responsibility of operating 10 locations across the region — each with unique outreach teams and operational considerations — Gateways’ team were ready to tackle these enterprise-grade issues with a solution that was truly up to the task.

“We had some issues we were facing that really helped us put focus on our requirements,” said Adam Alt, director of IT, Gateways. “We needed better visibility over our network, more reliable connectivity, stronger security, and to be ready to expand in the future. We needed an enterprise level solution that could support our staff and clients.”

Challenge:

• Security across Wi-Fi networks, both private and guest, was a critical point of focus. With some facilities requiring heightened security, regulating network access proved just as important as regulating physical security.
• The existing network was built on a “piecemeal” approach comprised of Cisco, Ubiquiti, and NetGear set up, with no standard across them and little ability to “talk” to each other.
• Gateways needed Power over Ethernet (PoE) for Wi-Fi APs, thanks to older facilities where rewiring and recabling wasn’t an easy option.
• Gateways wanted to have the ability to manage and view their entire multisite, multicampus network.

Solution:

• A combination of Extreme switching, Wi-Fi access points, and ExtremeCloud IQ provided the level of full-network visibility that Gateways had been looking for, reducing connectivity issues, improving network performance, and making troubleshooting and management a breeze.
• Replacing aging, disparate solutions with Extreme Fabric-enabled switches and Wi-Fi APs across 10 locations, with a hands-on team of Logically and Extreme certified engineers working in close alignment. Prior to this, Gateways and Logically implemented an entirely new SonicWall firewall solution.
• ExtremeCloud IQ would provide the Gateways IT team with crucial visibility across all sites, giving a unified vision of access points, switches, and the ability to quickly pinpoint and address issues.

Modernizing for Better Patient Care and Continuity

Within its network, Gateways Hospital operates three residential facilities focused on providing mental health care and support for patients who are in extremely challenging circumstances. From hands-on therapeutics to innovative outreach teams working on foot in the community, Gateways needed a cohesive and scalable way to keep patient care online and connected.

“It’s an incredibly compelling mission, this work that Gateways does both in hospital and out in the community through these specialized teams,” said Brett Miller, account executive, Logically.

In addition to these pieces of the puzzle, there were the security needs and communication across a locked facility to consider. And the legacy solutions they had “piece-meal” implemented across different sites weren’t working well together.

“We had some gear in here that you can easily purchase at a big box store, and it just was not working for us and where we wanted to take this system. We had one issue that was just so hard to track down with a communications platform we use, where it was choppy and sometimes dropping meetings completely,” said Alt of the prior challenges the staff faced.

“Our staff and care providers would be losing communications, losing work when they lost connectivity. So, it was just making it really difficult to provide the level of care and that continuity that we want to give to our clients, our patients.”

“We’re a teaching hospital, with up to 300 nursing students rotating through our facilities on an annual basis, along with up to 80 interns at any given time,” said Brian Thorne, Chief Development Officer and VP of hospital strategic initiatives at Gateways.

Across their sites and facilities, the human element of their work unifies their efforts and investments — but when serving patients across this network of teaching hospitals required the technological element, Gateways turned to partner Logically, selecting Extreme Networks and SonicWall for the right solutions and guidance to ensure they could seamlessly connect patients and providers. With grants in place to help support the overall project, the team was ready to get started.

Building an Enterprise-Level Networking Approach

After an initial replacement of end-of-life firewalls that Gateways entrusted to Logically and SonicWall, they were ready to zoom out and address switching needs and overall Wi-Fi access across the facility. For Alt and his team, this was where an interesting expedition of discovery really began.

“We discovered a lot about our old network when we started removing things and implementing our Extreme Networks and SonicWall solution set,” Alt said of the process. “We had wiring issues in some older facilities dating back to the 1950s, we had older devices that didn’t talk to each other very well, and connection was an issue thanks to some big radio towers near one of our main facilities,” Alt recalls of the journey from dysfunction to smooth operations. With regards to SonicWall, Gateways needed to implement a secure VPN solution with more of their workers connecting remotely.

Along with Extreme and Logically technicians, Gateways IT personnel were able to work through the configuration process, working hands-on and moving quickly. And with Extreme Fabric as the backbone of the all-new switching infrastructure, Alt says, the process became surprisingly efficient.

“I’d known my Logically technician for quite some time, so we walked through it together and the configurations were quite easy. We did all 10 sites in about a week — long days, sure, but to make that kind of difference that quickly was incredible,” Alt said. “Now, when we have a new switch, it’s automatic. It pushes all those settings to the next switch or Wi-Fi AP and the hands-on part is basically done for us.”

For Alt and his team, this new implementation helped them finally troubleshoot some of their most pressing challenges.

“We didn’t really get all of these issues addressed until we started the process of rebuilding the network from the ground up, starting with SonicWall and progressing on to the Extreme solution,” he said of the final fix. “As we got into using ExtremeCloud IQ, we could chip away at each problem we encountered and bring to light issues were weren’t even aware of previously.”

With a focus on increasing security, the combination of SonicWall firewalls and Extreme networking solutions positioned Alt and his team for a much easier job going forward.

“SonicWall is a household name in firewalls for good reason, and in our setting, data privacy is of paramount importance,” Alt said of the decision to partner with SonicWall through Logically. “And the solution is set so we can see every packet that’s coming through, we have continuous monitoring and multi-factor authentication (MFA) set up, for an overall much more secure system.”

Moving Ahead, Prepared with SonicWall and Extreme Networks

Today, Alt and his team at Gateways enjoy what they call “ongoing support,” with the knowledge that they have the backing of Extreme Networks, Logically, and SonicWall to address any questions or issues that pop up with the new system.

“Everybody’s happy,” said Alt of the change. “We’re not seeing any issues, knock on wood. No ups and downs in the connection, no dropping. And if we ever do run into anything, we’re able to detect it quickly thanks to ExtremeCloud IQ and the visibility we now have.”

Working with Extreme and SonicWall, Gateways has realized numerous benefits across its network:

• Gateways previously struggled with network loops that took hours to track down across the disparate network. Extreme’s infrastructure and Loop Recovery Protocol now allows fast identification of the loop location.
• The ExtremeCloud IQ™ portal helps Gateways gather insight about infrastructure cabling that they lacked previously, while helping find duplex port issues, subpar PoE power from cabling, flapping ports, and more.
• Gateways estimates that Gen 7 SonicWall solutions have increased scalability by up to 15 percent over the legacy hardware they previously had in place.

For Alt, much of this process has been made easier and more successful in working with Logically to identify issues and zero in on the ideal solutions for Gateways’ needs.

“Having an MSP available to us is huge,” Alt said of the value Logically brings to the table. “We don’t have the money to keep network engineers on site and work on this 24/7. Logically offers us the management capability, the backup systems, really everything we need to feel prepared and like we’re set up to expand and grow in the future.”

And with Logically driving the project, Gateways’ team feels like they landed on the right solutions in SonicWall and Extreme Networks.

“We’re a nonprofit, yes, but we want and need those bells and whistles — a true enterprise solution was what we were after,” Alt said. “It's been a success, from tapping into the capabilities we needed with ExtremeCloud IQ and consistent Wi-Fi coverage to getting that security element locked in with SonicWall.”

To learn more about how Extreme supports a better network for healthcare systems just like Gateways, read our Healthcare At-a-Glance.