As you may have seen, USA Mobility has acquired Amcom Software. We’re thrilled about the promise this holds for our customers, partners, and employees.
The acquisition is about combining the two leaders in mission-critical communications. USA Mobility is the undisputed leader in paging -- the foundation of mission-critical communications today. Increasingly, however, the requirements of mission-critical communications are evolving.
Pagers were once the lone device option for urgent communications in healthcare, government, and public safety. But today’s leading organizations speed response by communicating with a diverse array of methods and devices. That’s where Amcom comes in as the leader in delivering software solutions which enable seamless, critical communications.
Amcom connects people across a universe of devices and contact methods that is always expanding. This powerful combination creates one company at the forefront of mission-critical communications, providing end-to-end solutions today and tomorrow so the right people get the right information on the right device at the right time.
Read the full press release.
Let us know what you think by leaving a comment below.
Monday, March 7, 2011
Monday, February 14, 2011
Emergency Notification + Mobility = Better Response and Care
While the need to rally teams quickly in your hospital is certainly not new, there are an increasing number of ways to reach the right people when time is of the essence. Although pagers were once the standard for simultaneous communications, now staff can specify a wide range of devices on which they can be contacted.
For example, if you have a critical code, such as when a heart attack patient arrives, you probably have to let many people know that they will play a role in the very near future. The Cath Lab, cardiologists, nurses, lab technicians, and more can receive the appropriate message and respond with their availability. This is the key – being able to track responses easily and let alternate staff know if someone can’t make it. All of this can happen using common communications devices and systems such as smartphones, pagers, email, desk phones, and others. Logging all correspondence throughout the process also comes in handy when the Joint Commission asks for audit trails.
Best of all, better communications during emergencies helps improve patient care as staff focus more on doing their jobs and less on making multiple phone calls. Case in point, Amcom customer Goshen General Hospital in Indiana reduced its average time for treating heart attack patients (the “door-to-balloon time”) from 129 minutes to 68 minutes – a 47 percent reduction.
See for yourself how it all works in this video.
Drop us a line with your thoughts on emergency notification procedures.
For example, if you have a critical code, such as when a heart attack patient arrives, you probably have to let many people know that they will play a role in the very near future. The Cath Lab, cardiologists, nurses, lab technicians, and more can receive the appropriate message and respond with their availability. This is the key – being able to track responses easily and let alternate staff know if someone can’t make it. All of this can happen using common communications devices and systems such as smartphones, pagers, email, desk phones, and others. Logging all correspondence throughout the process also comes in handy when the Joint Commission asks for audit trails.
Best of all, better communications during emergencies helps improve patient care as staff focus more on doing their jobs and less on making multiple phone calls. Case in point, Amcom customer Goshen General Hospital in Indiana reduced its average time for treating heart attack patients (the “door-to-balloon time”) from 129 minutes to 68 minutes – a 47 percent reduction.
See for yourself how it all works in this video.
Drop us a line with your thoughts on emergency notification procedures.
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Mobile Communications in Action at Maple Grove Hospital
Maple Grove Hospital truly embraces the latest technology, and we’re proud to be part of their communication solution. Built from the ground up and opened in 2009, this state-of-the-art facility is as quiet as it is modern. This helps promote healing and reduces stress for patients as well as staff.
Behind the scenes, Amcom middleware connects to the Rauland-Borg nurse call system and Philips patient monitoring units to send staff alerts on their Vocera badges. This allows the right staff members to receive notifications and respond to changes in patient conditions quickly – without a lot of noise and confusion.
Another interesting thing about how staff communicate is that because different alerts are sent to different staff members, general efficiency is amazing. If a patient presses the ‘pain’ button on the nurse call system’s bedside control unit, that goes to the appropriate nurse. But a request for ‘water’ or ‘toilet’ goes to an aide. There’s also an LED screen in each room where nurses can request supply replenishment as needed to avoid spending time tracking down particular items.
Right message, person, device, time. It’s hard to beat.
Learn more from Maple Grove’s CEO Andy Cochrane in Healthcare Executive Insight’s recent article.
Behind the scenes, Amcom middleware connects to the Rauland-Borg nurse call system and Philips patient monitoring units to send staff alerts on their Vocera badges. This allows the right staff members to receive notifications and respond to changes in patient conditions quickly – without a lot of noise and confusion.
Another interesting thing about how staff communicate is that because different alerts are sent to different staff members, general efficiency is amazing. If a patient presses the ‘pain’ button on the nurse call system’s bedside control unit, that goes to the appropriate nurse. But a request for ‘water’ or ‘toilet’ goes to an aide. There’s also an LED screen in each room where nurses can request supply replenishment as needed to avoid spending time tracking down particular items.
Right message, person, device, time. It’s hard to beat.
Learn more from Maple Grove’s CEO Andy Cochrane in Healthcare Executive Insight’s recent article.
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Stony Brook University Medical Center is Deploying Smartphone Messaging for 3,000 BlackBerry Smartphones
We’re thrilled that Stony Brook University Medical Center has chosen our pager replacement and smartphone messaging system, Amcom Mobile Connect. They will be using it for 3,000 BlackBerry smartphones throughout their facility to handle high-volume messaging.
This well-respected medical center will also benefit from Mobile Connect’s encrypted messages and full visibility and traceability of all message activity. This will include time and date stamps showing when messages are sent, delivered, and opened, as well as when responses are sent and the information contained in each response.
You can read more in the press release we issued today.
This well-respected medical center will also benefit from Mobile Connect’s encrypted messages and full visibility and traceability of all message activity. This will include time and date stamps showing when messages are sent, delivered, and opened, as well as when responses are sent and the information contained in each response.
You can read more in the press release we issued today.
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Everyone's on Board With Smartphone Use in Healthcare - or Maybe Not?
We recently did an extensive industry survey to learn more about what people are really thinking about smartphone use in hospitals. The results were pretty interesting. Respondents reiterated a few points we’ve been hearing for a while, such as the overall decline in pager use and a trend toward smartphones and other communications technology. But we were interested to learn why some organizations are intentionally delaying smartphone use as well.
Surprisingly, the major barrier to adoption used to be cellular coverage. This emerged in the survey as a relatively minor issue. This is most likely due to the ability of smartphones to use the local Wi-Fi network and hospitals working with cellular carriers. We’ve worked with customers on several scenarios to handle this. Some hospitals have set up coverage for all the major cellular carriers with redundancy throughout their facilities. Wi-Fi capabilities continue to be up and coming as well. This includes leveraging services such as BlackBerry Mobile Voice System (MVS) so the Amcom application can automatically select either cellular coverage or MVS as needed for delivery.
One issue survey respondents mentioned a few times was trouble gaining agreement from key stakeholders about the need for pager replacement / smartphone messaging applications. Certainly getting buy-in from those who will support and promote this type of functionality at your facility is key. Several of our customers have done small focus group-type implementations with key stakeholders to gain acceptance. Likewise, real-world examples of benefits for both staff efficiency and patient safety can help here, as can reference calls with other hospitals successfully using smartphones.
Likewise, security was a question given the sensitive nature of healthcare communications. The Amcom solution excels in this area by sending encrypted messages, which are then decrypted by the application on the smartphone. Even the message inbox can be password-protected. This helps you with HIPAA and the HITECH Act and keeps staff and patient details protected.
And some people asked what happens to investments already made in current technology and the staff training that went with it? This isn’t necessarily a sunk cost. Smartphone messaging can coexist quite peacefully with other types of devices. In fact, different staff members tend to need different things. Nurses often rely on Wi-Fi phones, housekeeping on pagers, and clinicians on smartphones. It doesn’t have to be all or nothing. As long as messages reach the right people on the right device at the right time, patient safety standards can be protected and staff can be satisfied.
Let us know what you think. What are your hospital’s key concerns as far as moving ahead – or not – with smartphones in your organization?
Surprisingly, the major barrier to adoption used to be cellular coverage. This emerged in the survey as a relatively minor issue. This is most likely due to the ability of smartphones to use the local Wi-Fi network and hospitals working with cellular carriers. We’ve worked with customers on several scenarios to handle this. Some hospitals have set up coverage for all the major cellular carriers with redundancy throughout their facilities. Wi-Fi capabilities continue to be up and coming as well. This includes leveraging services such as BlackBerry Mobile Voice System (MVS) so the Amcom application can automatically select either cellular coverage or MVS as needed for delivery.
One issue survey respondents mentioned a few times was trouble gaining agreement from key stakeholders about the need for pager replacement / smartphone messaging applications. Certainly getting buy-in from those who will support and promote this type of functionality at your facility is key. Several of our customers have done small focus group-type implementations with key stakeholders to gain acceptance. Likewise, real-world examples of benefits for both staff efficiency and patient safety can help here, as can reference calls with other hospitals successfully using smartphones.
Likewise, security was a question given the sensitive nature of healthcare communications. The Amcom solution excels in this area by sending encrypted messages, which are then decrypted by the application on the smartphone. Even the message inbox can be password-protected. This helps you with HIPAA and the HITECH Act and keeps staff and patient details protected.
And some people asked what happens to investments already made in current technology and the staff training that went with it? This isn’t necessarily a sunk cost. Smartphone messaging can coexist quite peacefully with other types of devices. In fact, different staff members tend to need different things. Nurses often rely on Wi-Fi phones, housekeeping on pagers, and clinicians on smartphones. It doesn’t have to be all or nothing. As long as messages reach the right people on the right device at the right time, patient safety standards can be protected and staff can be satisfied.
Let us know what you think. What are your hospital’s key concerns as far as moving ahead – or not – with smartphones in your organization?
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