Pager Replacement and Device Consolidation with Smartphone Messaging

Mobile Device Madness

Today’s smartphones and other mobile devices have brought with them new possibilities, but also new challenges in healthcare. Physicians, nurses, and administrators often carry several devices at all times. A BlackBerry^®, iPhone^®, or Android™, one or more pagers, an in-house wireless telephone—it’s become cumbersome for staff members and IT teams alike. Likewise, the need for two-way communications and delivery confirmations has become increasingly important to ensure efficiency and patient safety.

The time has come to leverage smartphones for everything from code calls and consult requests to personal communications. This pager replacement strategy is finally possible with Amcom™ Mobile Connect™.

Key Features of Amcom Mobile Connect

Messages can be sent using the Web portal or Amcom/third-party applications for operator consoles, Web directories and other solutions
The Mobile Connect application on your BlackBerry, iPhone, or Android separates critical messages from less important emails and SMS messages
Full audit trail of delivery and read receipts ensures messages are delivered and read by the appropriate clinician
Active acknowledgement of message and free-form text response

Watch a demonstration to learn more about Amcom Mobile Connect

The Importance of Two-Way Messaging

Hospitals today know the importance of providing users with the ability to respond to a message either with a predefined set of answers or free-form text.These features not only enable users to respond quickly with their availability, but they also provide important information and instruction. With two-way messaging, administrators can also define critical escalation points based on users’ replies, ensuring proper response.

Audit Trail and Full Traceability for Closed-Loop Communications

When a message first arrives, a delivery receipt is sent back to the sender, and a read receipt will be returned once that message has been opened. A read receipt only signifies that a message has been opened, so message recipients have the ability to actively acknowledge the message, which is then also transmitted back to the sender. In addition to acknowledgement, users can respond to a message using free-form text, which is kept with the original message in system log files for continuity purposes.

Administrators also require a full audit trail, including the ability to run reports on the timing of message delivery and how quickly read receipts were returned from each user’s smartphone. This ensures messages are read in a timely fashion and eliminates complaints from users that they didn’t receive a message. This feature can also be very important for legal and management teams.

View the "Mobility in Healthcare" blog written by Amcom Software CEO, Chris Heim.

Changing Your Pager Strategy Over Time

Our Healthcare Connectivity Assessment tool examines your hospital's connectivity and suggests steps you can take to become better connected.

Many organizations are undertaking a long-term approach to replacing the majority of their pagers. This means supporting a variety of communication devices for the foreseeable future. This means enabling some staff members to consolidate devices using smartphones while others may continue to use pagers. Amcom Mobile Connect enables you to do what makes sense based on your staff and messaging requirements.

Amcom Mobile Connect: Everybody Wins

Mobile Connect generates benefits for everyone involved. Clinicians and administrators can carry a single, highly reliable device and reduce confusion over which device is the appropriate one for contact purposes. IT support teams can reduce costs and maintenance headaches as fewer devices and coverage plans are required. Finally, the ability to create closed-loop messaging through read receipts and a full audit trail mean that patient safety and efficiency remain high.