Automated Nurse Call Rosters and Text Communications

Summary

Text messaging, known as SMS, has the potential to dramatically simplify and improve communications between staffing offices and their staff while reducing costs and improving their business processes. This is accomplished by integrating text messaging into the current forms of voice communications. Using text communication allows the nurse staffing organization to more effectively control and manage their inbound and outbound communications needs to meet immediate nurse staffing requirements.

Nurse staffing offices use computers and voice calls to mobile phones for communications frequently. However, these two devices are used independent of each other. Computers in the nurse staffing office are traditionally used for email, business processes and the Internet. Mobile phones are commonly used for voice communication. Over the past several years the features and functionality of mobile phones have expanded dramatically, which have put them on a level of a limited portable computer.

Computers and Internet access have limited availability outside the office environment and are mostly carried by mobile workers. Mobile phones, on the other hand, are carried by just about type of nurse. In some cases mobile phones are replacing personal land lines. Usually the nurse staffing office has the mobile phone numbers of its nurses along with their land line numbers. When contacting a nurse, the trend nowadays is to first call their mobile phone, then call their land line. Today’s society is always on the go and therefore, we assume the person we are trying to reach is mobile.

This report is a resource for staffing organizations, especially health care staffing organizations to immediately improve communications, increase their competitive edge, increase client satisfaction and implement emergency communications procedures while reducing operating expenses. This can be accomplished in a manner of days with a low Total Cost of Ownership and high Return On Investment.

Introduction

Test Messaging, or SMS (Short Message Service), because of its very nature has unique advantages other non voice services do not have. It provides a very convenient method of sending small bits of information to and between mobile phone users. The reasons for the enormous popularity of SMS have been the fact that the mechanism of sending and receiving messages not only saves time but costs less as well. In many situations one is relatively more comfortable sending a text message rather than talking over the phone. However, it must be noted that the younger generation is getting the most out of this service. They have even come up with their own language for conversational text messaging.

All of the mobile phone carriers, such as, Alltel, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, Voicestream, USCellular, MetroCall, TelusMobility, RogersWireless, Verizon and Metro PCS are in constant competition and are now offering text messaging services very inexpensively and in many moving towards making the service free. With this new direction the popularity of SMS is increasing further. SMS is also uniquely positioned as a very attractive advertisement medium. SMS is on its way to no longer being treated as a value added service in mobile networks; it is also providing a useful mechanism for a host of innovative applications over mobile networks. It is acting as a point of entry for new data services on mobile networks.

Solution

Making voice telephone calls is time consuming, inefficient and costly. For example making 35 calls for one shift may not result in acquiring the needed help on time and there is no method of verifying that the calls were made. Usually the call information is tracked by the staffer manually recording the results. This could take the staffer 30 to 45 minutes to make these calls not including creating the roster/list to be called.

Using an automated roster to send text messages to qualified individuals will take the staffer less than 1 minute. The staffer automatically creates a message from predefined messages, then selects qualifications and specialties information from drop down boxes; then the automated roster will identify and select the qualified individuals and send the text message out to 1 or 1000 or more individuals at the same time.

Conclusion

For the healthcare sector, wireless and mobile technology has come along at an opportune time. For decades the healthcare sector has lagged behind the manufacturing and financial sectors in the adoption of automated processes. Now it can use mobile and wireless technology to realize the sort of efficiency gains achieved by other businesses.

Wireless technologies and healthcare are a perfect fit. The clinical environment is a highly mobile one, and physicians, nurses and other clinical operators have a real need for fast communication, information and action. Using a subscription based text messaging application can provide an easy means to effect change in an old manual environment based upon low total cost of ownership.