When Jodi Pahl needs to find a doctor, the chief nursing executive at St. Rita's Medical Center in Lima, Ohio, could shout that doctor's name up and down the hallways of the 419-bed hospital. Or she could have that doctor paged over an intercom, ensuring that everybody knows who she's looking for.
Instead, she pulls out a phone and finds that doctor immediately. Then she can call or send a text.
In today's fast-paced healthcare environment, real-time communications between care team members is a necessity. More and more health systems are turning to smartphones as their device of choice, linking clinicians on-site with phones provided by the health system and setting up a mobile platform through which doctors can connect with their own phones.
It's a busy market filled with options, ranging from the big boys like Polycom and Spok to the up-and-coming vendors like Cureatr, PatientSafe and Voalté. St. Rita's, which serves a 10-county area in northeastern Ohio, has been using the PerfectServe platform since 2005, equipping nurses and other clinicians at the hospital with Cisco phones and allowing physicians to log in through their own phones.
Pahl sees smartphone-based platforms like that offered by PerfectServe as a necessity in the hospital setting, where doctors and nurses need to communicate quickly and messages need to be sent out to the entire staff – or a specific department or unit – in an emergency. In caring for a specific patient, everyone on that care team should be able to communicate at a moment's notice about test results or upcoming tests, diagnoses, care plans and discharge information.
"So much of what happens in a hospital … involves communication," she said. "You need to know where this person is right now, or you need to talk to that person. This breaks down those silos and makes connections."
Part of that communications network includes knowing who's on duty. Whereas in the past, when nurses had to resort to paper charts or a whiteboard to identify which doctors to call, they can now use their smartphone to instantly identify who's on site and who's on call. Likewise, doctors can program their phones to accept emergency messages, shuttle less-vital messages to voicemail or pass messages to whoever is on call.
The PerfectServe platform is also being used to address another healthcare issue – illegible doctor's notes.
According to a case study prepared by the vendor, St. Rita's set up a test by which all incoming callers were asked if they were dialing in to clarify an illegible order. An analysis showed that more than 80 calls per week were made to clarify orders during the three-month study. After working with physicians to capture their notes through the PerfectServe platform, using pre-printed order sets whenever possible, the hospital saw a 40 percent decrease in calls to clarify illegible orders.
One other use of the PerfectServe platform is in communications auditing – an action that, while it might be distasteful to clinicians who fear a 'Big Brother' effect, plays an important role in risk management. Herbert Schumm, the hospital's vice president of medical affairs, calls the PerfectServe platform the hospital's "black box for communications," enabling executives to audit all communications for timeliness and accuracy.
In the case study, Schumm pointed out that St. Rita's decided to install PerfectServe after losing out on a lawsuit that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, in which the hospital didn't have documented proof that a nurse had contacted a physician three times. Now the hospital has a complete log of all communications, including how the call was made, who it went to, how long it took, and in certain instances whether it was answered or how long it took for a message to be read or responded to.
Schumm pointed out that the system helps physicians become conscientious about their responses to hospital communications; it also helps in that nurses don't have to "tattle" on doctors who don't respond quickly enough.
Pahl said the PerfectServe platform helps doctors who "can get on their device and call directly" for results or consultations, just as it helps nurses to get their messages through to the right person as quickly as possible. No more running up and down hallways calling out names, checking charts or message boards to find who to call, or sending out a vague message to the entire hospital.
"Our doctors and nurses are getting the communication tools they need" to provide better healthcare, she said. "That's all that matters."
