Avaya Unified Communications Solutions Help Healthcare Organizations Address Multi-Site, Mobile Workforce Challenges
BASKING RIDGE, N.J., Feb. 20 - When Avaya rolls its 18-wheel Mobile Briefing Center onto the exhibition show floor of HIMSS08 next week, onboard will be a broad range of Intelligent Communications solutions that are helping healthcare organizations address critical communications challenges in a progressively complex industry. Avaya Inc. is a leading global provider of business communications applications, systems and services.
As healthcare organizations increasingly become multi-site operations with highly mobile staff, patient outcomes can depend on quickly connecting widely dispersed or highly mobile medical teams. In addition, confronted with the need to lower costs, healthcare IT departments need to spend wisely to accommodate a range of needs and enable the responsiveness required in mission-critical situations.
St. Mary's Regional Medical Center, Maine: Creating a wireless, mobile community
In Lewiston, Maine, St. Mary's Regional Medical Center takes the concept of "healthcare community" to heart. To simplify access to colleagues at 11 locations throughout Androscoggin County, the medical center implemented Avaya unified communications at the core site and extended the applications to survivable gateways at the outlying locations. With the support of New England Communications, an Avaya authorized BusinessPartner, St. Mary's is building a wireless LAN network to carry communications from site-to-site, which will also help lower costs and increase throughput.
"This is a great example of how St. Mary's is bringing the medical community together and using technology to provide better service to our patients," said Michael Grimmer, vice president of Facilities, Sisters of Charity Regional Health System. "We're tying all our locations onto one communications platform with duplicated processors for reliability. Our doctors have greater mobility with the Avaya Extension-to Cellular application, which also makes them more accessible to our patients."
Affinity Health System, Wisconsin: Integrated communications supporting integrated healthcare
With 23 clinics, three hospitals and a rehabilitation center, Affinity Health System in northeast Wisconsin is an integrated healthcare organization. When it comes to integrating communications, Affinity required a reliable, scalable platform that could support different types of mobile workers. Avaya Communication Manager at the heart of Affinity's operations handles the task for both clinical and non-clinical staff.
"Affinity was among the first healthcare organizations to recognize the benefits of VoWLAN solutions for clinical employees. Our floor nurses and others who primarily traverse a single site carry Avaya IP Wireless handsets specially designed for healthcare environments. Avaya Communication Manager is also integrated with our Rauland Borg Nurse Call system, enabling patient calls to go directly to the nurse instead of waiting at the central floor station," said Lory Clochesy, communications project leader, Affinity Health System. "We are also working on a trial for mobile, non-clinical workers in which Avaya's SIP-based integration to the Blackberry makes the smart phone behave as another extension of their desktop phone for access to calls and calling features, directories and simplified dialing."
At a Southern California Medical Center: Automating emergency notification outreach to many devices, many locations
At a Southern California medical center, plans are underway to implement the Trauma2Doc application from Doctor's GLOBAL Communications. On the cutting edge of emergency communications and response systems, Trauma2Doc leverages Avaya Communications-Enabled Business Processes to reduce communication latency between the trauma centers, administrators in the emergency rooms, and the physicians. The application automates the process of notifying one or more physicians that they are needed at a trauma center following an emergency event. The notification is sent to as many devices as have been previously designated by the physician. The application enables the physician to immediately respond with their availability and status, tracks and centralizes responses. According to Dr. Kathy Magliato, cardiothoracic surgeon and director of Women's Cardiac Services for St. John's Medical, "The most important tool a physician needs during a disaster is a viable communication solution."
Avaya Intelligent Solutions for Healthcare at HIMSS:
On Tuesday, February 26th from 12:15pm-1:00pm, in room 8181, Mark Wechsler, Healthcare Practice Director at Avaya will be joined by Dr. Kathy E. Magliato, from St. John's Medical Center in Santa Monica, CA, to demonstrate the Trauma2DOC application.
In addition, Avaya and members of its DevConnect developer program will demonstrate Intelligent Communications solutions for healthcare organization that support wireless mobility, patient self-service, communications-enabled business processes, telemedicine and for security and business continuity.
The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) is the healthcare industry's membership organization exclusively focused on providing leadership for the optimal use of healthcare information technology (IT) and management systems for the betterment of human health. The HIMSS Annual Conference and Exhibition is widely recognized as one of the world's largest and most respected events dedicated to healthcare IT.
About Avaya
Avaya delivers Intelligent Communications solutions that help companies transform their businesses to achieve marketplace advantage. More than 1 million businesses worldwide, including more than 90 percent of the FORTUNE 500®, use Avaya solutions for IP Telephony, Unified Communications, Contact Centers and Communications-Enabled Business Processes. Avaya Global Services provides comprehensive service and support for companies, small to large. For more information visit the Avaya Web site: www.avaya.com/.
Source: Avaya
CONTACT: Deb Kline, Avaya Media Relations, +1-908-953-6179, klined@avaya.com
Web site: http://www.avaya.com/
