I’ve been traveling a lot lately. Over the past month I’ve visited customers in several states, and last week I accompanied one of our Account Reps to a Georgia hospital that is facing some tough decisions about their clinical communication system.Every hospital and every IT department I meet with has unique needs and challenges, but I also see some striking similarities in the issues many of them are trying to resolve. The team I met in Georgia is using legacy phones that are near their end-of-life. Many hospitals are facing a similar situation as they weigh how to replace traditional phones, pagers and other outdated communication systems.
None of these decisions are quick or easy, and they all involve lots of people from different departments to make the best decision for the entire facility. For the past five years, Voalte has been helping dozens of large and small hospitals throughout the country upgrade to a smartphone alternative. During that time, we’ve learned the best practices for making the switch as smooth and efficient as possible.
Most important is starting with a thorough evaluation of your technical infrastructure. Before you start passing out smartphones to your hospital staff, you need to assess your Wi-Fi network and PBX phone system, and reevaluate your alarm workflow. You also need to plan for the deployment and physical management of your smartphones and ancillary equipment, such as charging units, external batteries and protective cases.
At Voalte, we do a lot more than develop communication apps. We also offer a full range of services that spans your initial Wi-Fi assessment and technical setup through day-to-day troubleshooting and user support. After all, today’s smartphones are much more than communication devices. They are ultra-mobile computers that fit in a caregiver’s pocket, run a variety of medical applications, and will soon connect with electronic medical records and bar code medication administration systems. To get the biggest return on your investment, you need a full-service partner like Voalte.
This week we published an Essential Smartphone Strategy Kit that can help your IT department identify the critical components of an effective smartphone strategy. You can watch a webinar that provides insight from a hospital CIO, read a white paper on the best way to implement a smooth integration, and review a case study focusing on one hospital’s success. Even better, you can pass the Kit along to your IT staff and send it to your CIO to bring your entire team up to speed quickly.
If you’re facing tough decisions about an outdated clinical communication system, take the time to understand your options and plan for a complete solution. And if you want a personal consultation, give us a call. We’d be happy to add you to our travel schedule.