When it comes to healthcare, effective communications can make all the difference between life and death. Without the right communications technology in place, doctors, nurses, emergency personnel, and other stakeholders can risk the delivery of information vital to successful patient outcomes.
The need for rapid, highly-targeted, and widely-distributed communications is absolutely necessary today. With specialized systems governing life support, patient monitoring, and drug delivery, and other crucial functions becoming more intelligent and autonomous, these systems also need to communicate more effectively with medical staff and each other.
Advanced communications can positively impact patient outcomes
The problems with a significant number of mass-communication systems in place are similar to the issues related to data operations in general. Many platforms are outdated, having evolved over decades to meet the needs of an on-premises, data center-centric approach. Additionally, the manual and on-site nature of managing and operating this infrastructure is out of step with the high-speed, automated performance requirements of today’s communications environments.
With regulatory requirements and the rapid need for swift medical care, the adoption of advanced communications can lag behind patient-focused technology needs. Critical communications infrastructure requirements are absolutely front and center issues. Meanwhile, online doctor consultations and virtual visits are still necessary and require a different approach to communications, without disrupting the functioning of the rest of the healthcare organization.
Healthcare systems need to move to a communications environment with the capability to handle today’s current pandemic, post-COVID-19 worst-case scenario incidents, natural disasters, or mass casualty events. Timely, accurate delivery of information has a positive impact on real-time steps affecting patient outcomes.
The world we live in today definitely highlights the importance of sharing critical information during emergencies. However, many organizations do not have the infrastructure in place to properly communicate with everyone. This poses a danger to everyone involved.
Download our white paper, where we share the best practices to implement in your organization to help avoice these same pitfalls should you need to manage an emergency.
Learn more: Emergency communication
Consider cloud-based mass-alert technology
CBTS addresses the needs of modern healthcare organizations through its Hosted Enterprise Unified Communications (UC) solutions. One critical advantage CBTS brings to healthcare providers is the integration of Singlewire Software’s InformaCast Fusion platform, a cloud-based mass-alert technology with world-class messaging tools designed for campus installations and wide geographic areas. With the Hosted Enterprise UC solution in place, organizations can prioritize messages to defined groups using advanced VoIP, teleconferencing, mobile, and global collaboration tools via a turnkey, centralized dashboard.
Using mass notifications, organizations can quickly integrate IP speakers, digital signage solutions, panic buttons, and other devices to share critical information automatically. The solution not only enhances the speed and reach of communications infrastructure, but it also lowers overall costs by removing the need to invest in multiple technologies to oversee these diverse lines of connectivity. Specifically, this technology improves communications in four key areas:
- Automated paging – contact the right people at the right time, whether it’s a pre-recorded message or a code blue.
- Patient tracking – automate the connectivity to tracking devices and send instant alerts when their location triggers a warning.
- Lockdown – quickly initiate and share lockdown procedures with staff and visitors via mobile, email and on-prem devices.
- Severe weather – pull alerts directly from the National Weather Service and distribute them to all users, along with any instructions and follow-up messages.
Integrate mass communications capabilities for IoT devices
Equally important is the need to integrate mass communications capabilities into the growing arsenal of IoT devices that are populating the healthcare industry. These devices include everything from light and temperature control systems to access entry, fire alarms, and medical devices.
With the implementation of these capabilities, healthcare providers can ensure the information required to maintain optimal care is going to the right person or device without drowning medical professionals in unnecessary or redundant alerts and messages. Simultaneously, CBTS takes over the time-consuming tasks of configuring phones, allocating bandwidth, and ensuring high-quality communications under its hosted managed service solution.
Faster, better, secure solutions
The healthcare industry is similar to other sectors of the economy when it comes to technology. It requires faster, better solutions that are secure, easy to implement and operate, and less expensive than traditional platforms. When it comes to communications, the best way to achieve these goals is through a hosted cloud-based solution that provides both the scale and flexibility to operate at the speed required of today’s digital applications and services.
We are watching our healthcare system transforming daily. Functions like mass communications and mass alerting can help organizations manage digital assets and incorporate next-gen technologies into mainstream operations.
For more information on how CBTS can help your organization manage this transition today, give us a call at (866) 587-2287, or visit our website at communications.