Hardware & Wiring Requirements
CHIME is a clinic workflow management system. It involves the deployment of a variety of hardware throughout a clinic, including waiting room screens and wall-mounted room tablets. This document outlines the recommended IT and electrical requirements to prepare a clinic for the installation of room tablets.
Room Tablets
There are two goals when installing the tablets:
Securely mount a tablet, within an enclosure, onto a wall outside each relevant room; and
Provide power to each tablet without any visible wires.
The tablets will be connected to the internet via WiFi.
Mounting the tablets
We use 3D printed custom enclosures to mount the tablets to the wall. To provide robustness and a place for wires a double gang box should be installed into the wall outside each relevant room. The enclosure is then attached to the gang box directly.
We recommend situating the gang boxes so that they are:
57 inches AFF to the midpoint of the gang box; and
12 inches from the side of the doorframe with the door handle.
We understand that this is not always possible. As such some discretionary placement will be required. If deviating from the above recommendation, please take into account any trim or other "protrusions' that might impact the ability to surface mount the tablet. A typical enclosure is roughly 9 inches tall and 6 inches wide.
When installing the gang boxes, it is important that they are installed level and flush with the drywall. We’ve seen gang boxes that are installed too deep or not level. Both are difficult to correct. If the gang boxes are installed correctly, the rest of the install is straightforward.
If the installation of a double gang box is problematic, our custom enclosures support alternative mounting (although please discuss with us as some modifications will be necessary).
single gang box
4-11/16 x 2-1/8 square boxes
drywall directly
Powering the tablets
We are familiar with three options. All three have been successfully used.
OPTION 1 — PoE with Central Injectors (preferred)
This option involves running 23AWG solid bare copper plenum rated (CMP) UL listed Cat6 ethernet cables from the clinic’s patch panel in the server area to each gang box, with a male termination. The quality of the cable is important as it helps ensure enough power is supplied to the tablets.
We will supply the required number of PoE to USB Power Adapters which will be placed inside each gang box and covert the PoE to USB power. We will also supply PoE injectors. We usually supply 1 rack mounted PoE injector for every 10 tablets.
This is our preferred approach because the PoE injectors are all centrally located. However, it usually requires longer cable runs.
OPTION 2 — PoE with Distributed Injectors
This option requires running ethernet cables from near any power outlet to each gang box, with a male termination.
This is sometimes the cheaper approach because the cable runs can be shorter. However, the PoE injectors end up spread out across the clinic. We've seen clinics with 50+ exam rooms go this route.
OPTION 3 — Standard 120V Power Outlets
Alternatively, the tablets can be powered via a normal power outlet. This option requires running a conduit to the nearest power outlet (and potentially installing the power outlet itself) where the power outlet is close enough to the gang box to support fishing a high-wattage 15 foot USB cable through the conduit to get to the outlet and plug into an adapter. Clinics that choose this option have typically installed the power outlets in the plenum above a drop ceiling.
We will supply the required number of 120V to USB Power Adapters as well as the 10 foot USB Cables.
