BellSouth Provides Innovative Communications Solutions for Florida Hospital

ORLANDO, Fla., Feb. 24 /PRNewswire/ -- HIMSS healthcare tradeshow -- As part of its initiative to address the growing needs of healthcare providers in the Southeast for secure and cost effective connectivity, BellSouth is delivering innovative voice and data solutions to Florida Hospital. The hospital relies on this critical infrastructure to deliver lifesaving information for its patients as part of its daily operations.

"Having effective, reliable communications is an absolute necessity to ensure doctors, nurses and staff have timely access to information," said Jim Becker, director of telecommunications for Florida Hospital. "By ensuring that our voice and data networks work at maximum efficiency, BellSouth has a direct impact on the care we are able to deliver to our patients."

Florida Hospital most recently implemented the BellSouth (R) Managed Network VPN Service to effectively link Florida Hospital with its 14 outlying clinics. With the solution's managed network firewall and the ability to incorporate DSL, Frame Relay and private line connections on one wide area network (WAN), Florida Hospital is able to easily share files, including electronic x-ray information, between locations.

At the core of Florida Hospital's communications network are redundant, high-speed fiber optic rings (OC-48 MSPP SONET), which provide the organization with business continuity in the event of a natural disaster. Additional services the healthcare provider utilizes from BellSouth include:

-- Voice transport -- Primary Rate Interfaces provide efficient, digital call routing -- BellSouth(R) Dedicated Internet Access Service -- allows high bandwidth connection to the Internet for research and email applications -- Leading voice and data equipment -- BellSouth provides, manages and maintains equipment from both Cisco Systems and Nortel Networks -- Wireless communications -- Wireless LAN connectivity, wireless phones and interactive pagers allow access to key personnel outside traditional boundaries -- BellSouth(R) Long Distance Services -- both Florida Hospital, as well as their parent company, Adventist Health System, utilize BellSouth for their single long distance voice and audio conferencing provider

"Healthcare is one of BellSouth's key vertical markets and an industry that requires complete, reliable solutions from a trusted source," said Joan Kratz, BellSouth's vice president of marketing for BellSouth Business. "With a package of comprehensive voice and data services, BellSouth offers converged solutions to the premier healthcare providers in the Southeast, allowing organizations like Florida Hospital to focus on what they do best -- provide excellent care to their patients."

BellSouth has provided consistent, reliable communications services to Florida Hospital for several years and supports the organization with a dedicated account team. As the hospital's needs and services continue to grow, BellSouth continually works to design solutions to meet their evolving requirements.

To view a video featuring Florida Hospital and BellSouth executives, visit: http://playlist.yahoo.com/makeplaylist.dll?id=1259045&segment=125440 (300K) http://playlist.yahoo.com/makeplaylist.dll?id=1259043&segment=125440 (56K)

For more information about BellSouth healthcare solutions, visit http://www.bellsouth.com/business/healthcare .

About Florida Hospital

With seven hospitals and 14 Centra Care walk-in medical centers, Florida Hospital is one of the largest hospital systems in the country, caring for almost one-million patients every year. In fact, Florida Hospital treats more inpatients than any other hospital system in the country.

Florida Hospital specializes in a wide range of health services for the entire family, including many nationally and internationally recognized programs in cardiology, cancer, women's medicine, neurology, diabetes, orthopaedics and rehabilitation. In addition to serving Central Florida residents, Florida Hospital serves as a major tertiary referral hospital throughout the Southeastern United States, the Caribbean and South America. For the last five years, Florida Hospital has been recognized as one the best hospitals in the country by U.S. News & World Report.

About BellSouth Corporation

BellSouth Corporation is a Fortune 100 communications services company headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. BellSouth serves nearly 50 million local, long distance, Internet and wireless customers in the United States and 12 other countries.

Consistently recognized for customer satisfaction, BellSouth provides complete communications solutions to the residential and business markets. In the residential market, BellSouth offers DSL high-speed Internet access and long distance, advanced voice features and other services. The company's BellSouth Answers(SM) package combines local and long distance service with an array of calling features; wireless data, voice and e-mail services; and high- speed DSL or dial-up Internet service and Cingular Wireless. In the business market, BellSouth serves small, medium and large businesses providing secure, reliable local and long distance voice and data networking solutions. BellSouth also provides online and directory advertising services through BellSouth(R) RealPages.com(SM) and The Real Yellow Pages(R).

BellSouth owns 40 percent of Cingular Wireless, the nation's second largest wireless company, which provides innovative wireless voice and data services.

BellSouth Corporation

CONTACT: Todd Smith, Media Relations of BellSouth, +1-404-829-8723, or
todd.smith@bellsouth.com

Web site: http://www.bellsouth.com/http://www.bellsouth.com/business/healthcare