Vocera smartphone for hospital settings

Vocera Inc. today announced the first shipment of the Vocera smartphone, the newest addition to the Vocera system of wireless, instant communication products. The new device, in addition to supporting all of the Vocera system’s unique voice-driven features, works as a wireless telephone and offers advanced application support to deliver enhanced staff efficiency and expedited patient care.

As an extension of the Vocera platform, the Vocera smartphone, jointly developed with Motorola, Inc. based on its Total Enterprise Access and Mobility solution, offers the same one-touch, voice user interface of the Vocera communications badge. Combined with the power of the Microsoft^® Windows Mobile^® 6.1 operating system, doctors and other clinical staff now will be able to access business applications, such as clinical alarm/alert systems, asset tracking and medical reference software. The new platform also will provide access to corporate e-mail.

The Vocera smartphone offers healthcare professionals, particularly physicians who are accustomed to using a phone or PDA, instant access to staff and clinical applications whenever and wherever they are needed in the hospital setting. The Vocera smartphone supports traditional phone dialing, as well as the voice capabilities of the Vocera badge. It integrates dual-band wireless networking for instant voice and data communications with the functionality of a mobile computer in a ruggedized, versatile, yet portable, device.

Doctors and residents in the Emergency Department (ED) at Arkansas Children’s Hospital were among staff at 10 beta hospitals that found the Vocera smartphone’s unified communication compelling. “Arkansas Children’s Hospital wanted to extend the intelligent, yet simple, Vocera experience to a wider user base to include hospitalists and doctors,” said Kim Hays, Telecom Applications Analyst for Arkansas Children’s Hospital. “Based on the needs of a specific group of our clinical staff, the smartphone had immediate appeal. They now have instant access to key resources through the Vocera communications system’s voice interface, but in a phone form that they like for its familiarity.”

As with the Vocera badge, the smartphone is a shareable device optimized for shift environments. Users can be assigned a fixed phone number with permissions and settings attached to their system profile, rather than to an individual phone.

“The Vocera solution delivers instant communication of critical information at the right time, to the right person, anywhere in a facility,” said Brent Lang, president and COO of Vocera. “We are expanding the Vocera solution with the Vocera smartphone to meet the increasingly complex communication needs of the healthcare industry. With these choices — the wearable Vocera badge and the new Vocera smartphone — we are bringing the benefits of instant voice access to new groups of in-building mobile workers.”

By providing immediate voice communication among key resources, Vocera solves real business and communication problems in healthcare, hospitality, retail and other vertical markets where the traditional “call and wait” scenario is used to find resources or information. Organizations that deploy Vocera experience immediate communication, thereby streamlining workflow, enhancing staff productivity and improving patient care and satisfaction. Based on pre- and post-implementation studies, one hospital using Vocera reported an 80 percent reduction in turning away ambulances from its emergency department, while another reduced overhead paging by 94 percent.

http://www.vocera.com/