Hot Topics in Pager Replacement: Speed and Redundancy

Every time we talk with folks at hospitals about smartphone messaging and pager replacement, two common areas of concern come up. One, the speed of message delivery, and two, the need for a backup system in case the primary messaging server has trouble.

In a hospital setting, speed is crucial for many activities – admitting patients, responding to patient requests, and especially getting important messages like code calls or consult requests to the right staff member. Message speed is fundamental; a code blue can’t dilly dally along and reach recipients five or ten minutes after it’s sent. Lives are at stake here.

Mobile Connect consistently delivers in this area. In fact, our benchmarking shows that messages are frequently delivered to smartphones in less than 5 seconds and nearly always faster than 10 seconds so staff can react quickly to the information they receive, and patients can be attended to more quickly. Our experience is that customers should implement a backup server for their Mobile Connect system to keep messages flowing smoothly should the primary server have problems.

The last mile (or feet) of speed and reliability comes from the in-house or wide-area wireless networks. These networks are susceptible to strained bandwidth or coverage dead spots. Finding a solution that can use a combination of in-house (Wi-Fi) and wide-area (cellular data) can ensure that messages are delivered quickly and reliably.

Establishing redundant communication paths through overlapping access points helps ensure smartphone communications reach the right person. In addition to an attention to infrastructure, the ‘if, then’ business rules of your hospital should be incorporated so that messages are automatically escalated to the appropriate person if the initial contact cannot be reached on either a primary or secondary device.

We’d love to hear your thoughts on these and other key requirements for smartphone messaging. Leave us a note below!