LAN performed an evaluation of a failing emergency call box system to determine corrective measures to reestablish communications between inoperable phone stations across the UT Southwestern Medical Center campus. The center is located in the Southwestern Medical District, a 231-acre campus in Dallas incorporating UT Southwestern Medical School, UT Southwestern Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, UT Southwestern Allied Health Sciences School, and four affiliated hospitals: Parkland Memorial Hospital, Children’s Medical Center, Zale Lipshy University Hospital, and St. Paul University Hospital, as well as the Aston Ambulatory Care Center.

The University provides  the call boxes in most parking garages and surface lots to  allow for quick access in emergency situations. Constant  campus expansion had inadvertently damaged many of the  interconnecting wiring serving the emergency system, leaving  many call boxes inoperative. LAN engineers mobilized immediately to the campus, completed the site investigations in four weeks, found the  damage, made recommendations to correct the problems, and estimated the construction costs associated with the corrective actions for a more secure system.

The corrective actions and recommended repairs included replacing the conductors in some locations to re-establish connections to locations close to the Dispatch Office. For more remote locations, LAN recommended providing network bridges to reduce installation costs and to provide added flexibility for the future when UT Southwestern moves the Dispatch Office. The system is now operative and secure.