Hospitals have a connectivity problem they can’t afford to ignore

The operational reality facing modern hospitals 

Modern hospitals are built around mobility.

Clinicians move continuously across departments and campuses. Medical devices generate constant streams of real-time data. Care teams rely on uninterrupted access to applications, communications platforms, imaging systems, and patient information.

But inside many hospitals, the infrastructure supporting this environment was designed for a very different era.

The result isn’t simply occasional frustration or dropped connections.

It’s growing unnecessary operational drag.

Care teams lose time reconnecting applications, reentering information, or working around inconsistent coverage. IT organizations face mounting complexity as more workflows shift onto already strained wireless infrastructure. And digital initiatives increasingly depend on connectivity models that were never designed for today’s density, mobility, or performance expectations.

For years, hospitals could tolerate “mostly reliable” connectivity.

Today, they can’t.

The growing gap between digital ambition and infrastructure reality

Healthcare organizations continue investing heavily in AI-assisted workflows, real-time communications, remote patient monitoring, and connected medical technologies. These investments are designed to improve efficiency, clinician experience, and patient outcomes.

But their success depends on something far more foundational: reliable indoor connectivity.

When wireless infrastructure becomes inconsistent, even advanced technologies struggle to deliver their intended value. Clinical workflows slow down. Staff frustration increases. Operational inefficiencies compound quietly across teams and facilities.

And unlike traditional infrastructure failures, these costs rarely appear as direct line items.

They show up indirectly:

• Lost clinician time
• Workflow interruptions
• Increased IT complexity
• Redundant systems and overlays
• Manual workarounds
• Reduced operational resilience

At scale, these inefficiencies compound quickly—raising a more fundamental question: can the underlying connectivity model keep up with modern care demands?

Why hospitals are reaching a tipping point

Many hospitals still rely on a combination of Wi-Fi and legacy indoor cellular/DAS (Distributed Antenna Systems) platforms designed around older assumptions about mobility and wireless demand.

Those assumptions no longer hold.

Today’s healthcare environments support thousands of simultaneously connected devices, always-on mobility, real-time applications, and rising expectations for seamless connectivity across every corner of the facility.

As hospitals increasingly push mobility-dependent workflows onto Wi-Fi networks or DAS systems, they're finding these solutions were never intended to carry the entire burden.

Over time, complexity grows.

So do operational costs.

What began as incremental fixes — adding access points, overlays, and tuning — increasingly creates environments that are harder to manage, more difficult to scale, and less predictable under pressure.

The issue is no longer just network performance.

It’s operational resilience.

Connectivity is becoming strategic infrastructure

Forward-looking healthcare organizations are beginning to reassess indoor connectivity differently — not as background infrastructure, but as a foundational layer for modern care delivery.

That shift is driving new conversations around how hospitals can create more predictable, scalable, and resilient indoor wireless environments without overhauling existing systems.

The goal isn’t simply better coverage.

Why hospitals are reevaluating indoor 5G connectivity strategies

In response to growing operational demands, many healthcare organizations are beginning to reassess indoor connectivity at the foundation level.

Increasingly, that includes exploring indoor 5G and neutral host small cell architectures as a way to create more consistent, resilient cellular coverage throughout the facility — without placing additional strain on already overextended Wi-Fi environments.

Unlike legacy approaches that often require continuous overlays and incremental fixes, indoor 5G strategies are being evaluated as part of a longer-term effort to simplify wireless infrastructure, improve mobility reliability, and support future digital initiatives at scale.

For healthcare leaders, the value extends beyond connectivity alone.

More predictable indoor wireless performance can help reduce operational friction, improve clinician mobility, strengthen resilience during peak demand or disruption, and create a more scalable foundation for emerging technologies, including AI-enabled workflows and connected medical devices.

Rather than continuing to manage growing complexity, hospitals are beginning to look for ways to reduce it.

The next step for healthcare connectivity

Ericsson’s new paper, The connectivity gap hospitals can’t afford to ignore  examines:

• Why legacy indoor connectivity models are reaching their limits
• The operational and financial consequences of “mostly reliable” connectivity
• How wireless complexity quietly impacts clinical workflows and IT operations
• Why leading healthcare organizations are reevaluating indoor cellular strategy
• What hospitals can do to build a more resilient connectivity foundation

As hospitals continue expanding digital care delivery, the organizations that address connectivity at the foundation level will be better positioned to support future growth, operational performance, and clinical mobility at scale.

The connectivity gap hospitals can't afford to ignore

Download the paper

For more information about Ericsson's full portfolio of solutions, please see 
Connectivity for smarter healthcare