Hospitals Find New Ways To Ease The Nursing Crisis
Voalté iPhone Application Improves Critical Communication At Point-Of-Care
Sarasota, Fla. (PRWEB) December 1, 2009
Nationwide, nurse workloads have increased due to staffing shortages resulting in dissatisfaction levels among nurses that are three to five times higher than the average worker. Nurses simply lack the time to do what they joined the profession to do - provide quality patient care. Today nurses spend so much time chasing down information that their career becomes frustrating.
In the report titled, "What works, healing the healthcare staffing shortage", Dr. David Pryor, senior vice president at Ascension Health says, "There is a component of communication and teamwork that must be present in the environment in order to provide high-quality care and retain staff. Nurses are providing frontline care and nurse turnover is directly related to effective communication on the floor."
"It's time consuming when you're called and someone else could have taken care of the problem. You spend so much time chasing down information," said Danielle Reed, Charge Nurse at Sarasota Memorial Hospital. "There's always an issue of nurses not having enough time for bedside care."
A solution is on the horizon.
Trey Lauderdale, Vice President of Innovation at Voalté (http://http;//www. voalte. com), was working for Emergin (recognized as a pioneer and market leader in alarm management and automated event notification solutions for healthcare facilities) as the Southeast Regional Sales Manager when he witnessed the plight of discouraged nurses. He observed the nurses having to cover more ground and spending too much time searching for information, and thought, "With today's technology, there must be a better solution."
"Clear and accurate communication is crucial to delivering high quality patient care," said Lauderdale. "I knew there had to be a better way. I wanted to provide a complete communication solution at the point-of-care (http://http;//www. voalte. com) on one mobile platform."
As an early iPhone adopter, Lauderdale recognized the potential of integrating the device into the hospital environment. He was certain an innovative communication platform such as the iPhone would improve point-of-care communication and put the information they spend so much time seeking right in the palm of their hand. Lauderdale's vision became a reality with the introduction of the Voalté One Solution which provides voice, alarm and text services all on one device at the point of care. The solution allows clinicians to spend more time providing patient care and less time searching for elusive information.
In June, Voalté launched a pilot program as part of its development partnership with Sarasota Memorial Hospital in which nurses could give immediate and direct feedback to the company via the iPhones. The hospital staff worked closely with the Voalté team to gauge the success of the solution, including how easily the nurses adapted to carrying and using iPhones.
"The nurses have embraced the technology and have given us great feedback," said P. J. Floyd, Associate Chief Nursing Officer at Sarasota Memorial Hospital. "The Voalté One (http://http;//www. voalte. com) makes them better able to respond quickly to patient's needs."
An unanticipated benefit of the Voalté One pilot program was a dramatic reduction in intercom chatter. The results of a private study after the implementation of the Voalté application at Sarasota Memorial revealed a 78 percent reduction in overhead paging.
"I would absolutely recommend the Voalté solution. Noise reduction is a huge factor," said Reed. "Before Voalté, we had to overhead page whenever the phone rang. Now we can quietly and quickly text the right person without disrupting the patients."
"It's not just wireless telephones for nurses. It's not just two-way paging," said Lauderdale. "Voalté is redefining communications at point of care, enhancing nurse satisfaction, and giving them more time to do what they love - taking care of patients."
About Voalté
Voalté provides compelling software solutions for healthcare institutions that solve communication problems at the point-of-care. Voalté products are designed to be intuitive, high value, mission critical applications running on the latest generation of touch-based smartphones. For more information, visit www. Voalte. com or call 941.312.2830.
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