04
Nov
Hospital-Wide Communication
Still using pagers and two-way radios? Still lugging around wireless phones? It’s amazing how often we see someone with all of these devices, and a cell phone.
They are better equipped than Batman!
Not only is it a lot to carry around, the organization has to support the aging technology (with people and dollars). This is 1990’s technology that served the hospital well in its day, but it is time to look at updating the communication infrastructure. There are some real world, measurable benefits to modernizing this infrastructure:
- Lower TCO across the hospital: Fewer Vendors = More control over costs, pricing, maintenance, politics, etc.
- Greatly improved work-flow:
- Nurse Call
- Physician Consults
- HIS Integration
- Transport Services
- BYOD (Bring Your Own Device)
- …the list goes on! (Facilities, IT, Environmental Services…)
- Improved satisfaction for both internal AND external customers (How many single-initiative projects can have such positive impact on HCAHP scores while initially focusing on your internal clients?)
And don’t forget the intangible benefits:
- Improved relations between IT and every department
- Improved customer perception of IT: IT becomes a sought-after partner to address future needs
Since deploying a secure wireless communications system with secure messaging across the entire hospital is a wide reaching, enterprise level initiative, it is critical to do it right the first time. You may not get a second shot.
So, how to attack this seemingly herculean task? Where do you even begin? How do you reconcile the many points of view, timetables, wants, politics, and functional dependencies? Your best bet is to enlist the aid of someone who has already done it successfully.
We often execute projects like these. Some critical concepts to keep in mind are:
- Solid Strategy
- Executive Buy-In
- Extensive Stakeholder Communication
- Detailed Planning
- Careful Execution
For WAKE TSI, this isn’t rocket science. We cover these on all of our hospital-wide projects.
There are some very capable solutions out there. We don’t care which vendor’s platform you choose as long as it meets your needs and goals. We know how complicated and challenging initiatives like these are.
Contact us. We can share some interesting case studies with you.
