Nurses are the hub of patient care coordination and communication within the walls of hospitals and healthcare facilities. We are always amazed at the volume of work we see our nurse users undertaking, and their dedication to patient recovery, so it is essential to have a communication system that supports this.

Part of our job at Telmediq is to work with well regarded hospital or healthcare systems to analyze the communication workflow between nurses and other clinicians, physicians and supporting staff, and we often find opportunities for vast improvements. At Telmediq we believe that nurses should be equipped with communications equipment and software that is at least as good or better than those found in the general consumer market. What we often find, however, is that hospitals are stuck with legacy pagers, DETC phones and wearable badges that don’t provide the level of communication needed, and available, from modern technologies.

Why are hospitals stuck with legacy communication devices?

This has partly been due to budget constraints and partly due to integration issues, but neither no longer need apply. Arming nurses with the latest smartphone devices has historically been cost prohibitive, however, powerful and durable Android devices can now be acquired for less than $100 USD.

Another reason for a limited number of smartphone deployments has been the legacy systems and interfaces that a nurse communication provider must communicate with. But a valuable communication solution will integrate with a facility’s systems of record so that, not only is disruption minimized, but valuable information from each system is available within the communication solution.

Telmediq’s extensive research into the needs of all stakeholders at healthcare organizations, recognized how valuable this data transfer is for practitioners and nurses alike. We created a communications hub that allows for a rapid and low cost modernization of communications infrastructure.

What does a modern communication solution look like?

In speaking with thousands of clinicians over the years, we have found that nurses require many things to communicate effectively within their jobs. These include the ability to:

• Receive patient alerts and alarms, including bed calls enter code here
• Call into a patient room to address a patient issue without having to walk a long distance
• Rapidly communicate with other hospital staff via voice and text
• Quickly reach an on-call physician, based on that doctor’s schedule and specialty, without needing to log into the EMR, look for paper schedules or log into a scheduling platform
• Quickly see the location of a patient and who is on their care team, including physicians, social workers, and other staff
• Receive inbound calls from patients’ families, and take voicemails if they are unavailable, with the seamless ability to call families back without their personal phone numbers being disclosed
• Receive time-critical updates from the EMR system including critical test results, with the ability to share and discuss these results with other clinicians
• Take basic documentation and have it automatically stored on the patient chart

The above nurse mobility requirements may sound like a nirvana for nurse mobility, but at Telmediq we have already accomplished these workflows and more. We allow nurses to spend less time on manual and burdensome communication and documentation processes and allow them to spend more time where they want to spend it – caring for patients.

While we feel that we have a very clear understand the needs and wants of our nurse clients, we are also committed to continuous improvement, product innovation and driving tangible outcomes for our hospital clients. For that reason, if you are a nurse or clinical leader in your organization, we would love to hear from you about your vision for the future in improved communications and workflow.