Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children to install Vocera
- 5 July 2006
Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children is to install the Vocera hands-free wireless voice communication system.
The new system, which provides staff with hands free voice communication using a simple badge device, will form part of the Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children’s (RBHSC’s) new wireless voice and data infrastructure.
Staff currently use a range of incompatible communication tools such as landline telephones, radios, pagers, and mobile phones. The Vocera system will allow staff to instantly make and recieve calls by using one device, which supports hands free voice activated calls – including the facility to dial by simply stating a name.
Seventy-five healthcare staff working on the hospital’s Barbour Ward will use the Vocera communications badge which weighs less than 2 ounces. The badge can be clipped to a shirt pocket or collar, or worn on a lanyard, enabling instant, hands-free voice communication.
By simply pressing a button on the badge and asking the system to call by name, title, or function, staff will be instantly connected to the resources or colleagues they need anywhere in the hospital’s wireless environment.
Combining the leading-edge technologies of Wireless LAN (WiFi), Voice over IP (VoIP), and speech recognition, Vocera allows users to communicate, make decisions, and act quickly within the hospitals.
“Vocera will be a huge asset to our staff,” said Paul Duffy, IT manager at Royal Hospitals. “Nurses are especially excited about this solution because they will save time tracking down staff and resources and will be able to spend more time with patients.”
“We expect three immediate advantages of using Vocera’s hands-free devices: time-saving, cost-cutting, and better call management,” said Dave Riley, managing director of Worldwide Solutions, which served as Vocera’s implementation partner.
Riley added: “The nursing staff will not have to walk so far during shifts, patients will be moved from high cost areas in the hospital to other wards more swiftly, and calls to the hospital switchboard will be reduced.”
Duffy said that based on the initial implementation the plan was now to put the system in at the four hospitals within the trust: Royal Victoria, Royal Jubilee Maternity Service, Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children and the Dental Hospital.
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