“A tipping point is the event of a previously rare phenomenon becoming rapidly and dramatically more common.”

Last year it happened – I can’t put my finger on when it happened – and I am not sure if there was a specific day, week, or month when it occurred, but in 2012, we hit a tipping point.

The tipping point we experienced was the exponential growth of smartphones being used as a communication device at the point-of-care. Nurses, doctors, and hospital administrators have unilaterally proclaimed that legacy VoIP wireless phones, pagers, and voice badges are devices of the past; our caregivers deserve a better communications experience.

We are constantly amazed at what our customers have been able to achieve in the past four years and we are blessed to partner with such an innovative group of healthcare leaders.

So what is in store for 2013– the year past the tipping point? What is the future of smartphones at the point-of-care?

Come check us out at HIMSS13 in New Orleans to see what Voalte has planned for the new year. If you think Voalte was busy last year, just wait and see what we have in store for you in 2013!

As I travel from hospital to hospital as a User Experience Manager for Voalte, caregivers I train frequently ask me, how Voalte will be useful in their particular unit?  Depending on the type of communication device the caregivers have previously been using or the lack thereof, many caregivers just cannot visualize how Voalte could benefit their unit. 

I often respond with a question… "With whom do you communicate on a regular basis?"  The responses from the caregivers vary depending on their unit workflow from Pharmacy to Respiratory to Physicians, Care Techs, etc.  Then I ask, "How have you been communicating with them?"  Their responses are amazing!  Some have been using pagers, which have been obsolete for individuals outside the hospital setting for quite some time.  Others say they have phones that they can use to call the intended party on.  The trouble with this is that both parties must stop what they are doing to speak to one another by phone.  In this scenario, both caregivers must be available at the same moment and caregivers don’t consistently have the same phone number, resulting in the caregiver dialing 4 or 5 extensions before they find someone to answer.  Lastly, many caregivers respond to my question by saying, "We just yell down the hall or go find the person."

When I explain how the Voalte One solution will allow them to text and call other caregivers by tapping on the desired individuals name or unit, they are thrilled!  Being able to text caregivers and other units throughout the hospital excites them, realizing how this form of communication will help them to better manage their requests from other individuals more effectively.  They are relieved when they learn that they will now be able to see which caregivers are at work on a particular shift, thus eliminating the dialing of multiple extensions to find someone to answer their call. 

I am excited to report that it does not take much convincing for Voalte’s caregivers to agree that we have transformed how they do business!

As a young rep starting off in technology and healthcare, I was thrown into a whole new world that I never expected. Immediately, I was given an overwhelming amount of knowledge, talking to some of the best individuals in healthcare. Eight months later and I love every minute of it. I get to develop relationships with the people that make a difference everyday…. Nurses!!!

Tradeshows are nothing new. Almost every b2b company attends a conference of some sort. For me however, the ANCC National Magnet Conference that took place in Los Angeles, California this past month was my very first tradeshow.

The 2012 ANCC National Magnet Conference is where clinicians go to celebrate nursing, let their hair down, and have a good time!! This is the nursing conference to top all nursing conferences. Hospital organizations send their nurses to ANCC to celebrate being designated (or re-designated) as a Magnet Hospital, the highest clinical honor to be had.

What made ANCC so special was that it was a conference dedicated solely to nurses. As a vendor, we were there to show our Voalte solution but we were also there to celebrate clinical excellence. This conference was all about showing nurses a different way to manage the craziness of their daily work lives through our solution, putting a smile on their faces, and making relationships with those that matter most.

The amount of sweat and stress that goes into making this conference happen becomes worth it when you get the chance to speak face-to-face with the nurses. These nurses come from all different backgrounds and environments; each one having a different perspective, but all having the same caring heart that makes them so special. Seeing the a-ha moment after demoing our solution was just icing on the cake.

The take away… The solutions you sell are one thing, but the people you meet and the relationships you make are what really count. ANCC opened my eyes as to why we work hard at doing what we do. It’s a shout out to nurses because they are the ones that matter most!

A lot of people talk about what they want to do or who they want to be. Companies do it too. They talk about their vision or their purpose, but what does it all really mean? To believe in what you are doing, is that vision? What is the purpose of the work I am doing?

These were the types of questions I asked myself when I was sitting in a chair at Sarasota Memorial Hospital. My wife was recovering from complications with her Diabetes, so I had a lot of time to sit, stare blankly at my laptop screen, and ponder the impact our solution has on healthcare and even further, on my life directly, in this moment. I had the same reoccurring thoughts, as I watched nurses come in every thirty to sixty minutes to test her blood sugar levels. This isn’t just marketing; they are really using the product to help my wife recover. This is real.

I did not understand the true importance of the Voalte solution until I saw it in action. I watched as someone triple checked the basal rate of insulin my wife received every hour. The nurse used the product we sold, making sure not to double up on the dosage. It really hit home at that moment, how lucky we were to be in one of the best hospitals in the world, a hospital, which is running Voalte.

You hear sales pitch after sales pitch, involving the vision or purpose of a company, but you don't really understand the reality until you experience it first hand. I understand, now more then ever, what it means to have purpose in my work. It’s not about hitting a sales goal. It's about building something that is capable of impacting the quality of care your child, parent, or spouse receives. I love being a part of something like that... I was sitting in the hospital room while my wife recovered when purpose slapped me in the face.

I eat, sleep, and breathe customer service, and lately I’ve been thinking a lot about how difficult great service is to find anymore.  The wheels started turning while I was reading a Peteac Communications book that examined their personalized customer service model.  Then Voalte participated in a few Fall trade shows and, lo and behold, the theme for one was “Because it’s Personal.”  It seems ironic that everywhere I turn, people are talking about stellar, “above-and-beyond” customer service, yet it’s tough to find companies actually doing anything about it.  But not impossible… 

I was at the grocery store the other day and as I made my way through the checkout, the cashier pleasantly inquired whether I had found everything I needed.  We both chuckled at my usual response: “Yes, as well as several things that I don’t need!”  As she scanned my items, she noticed a bag of lettuce was open.  Before I could blink or ask, the gentleman bagging my groceries was off and running to fetch me an unopened one.  Now, if that’s not stellar customer service, going the extra mile, and making it “personal,” I don’t know what is.

So, how do we at Voalte make personal connections with all of our customers?  We start by providing them with their very own Voalte Care Specialist (VCS).   Each Voalte-integrated hospital has a VCS (our larger sites have two!), who not only knows and practices our Voalte values, but is also a member of the hospital’s local community and is familiar with regional nuances.  Each VCS familiarizes him/herself with the hospital’s unique policies and procedures surrounding Voalte, and gets to know staff on the units.  They make weekly site visits to orientate new Voalters, touch base with veterans, troubleshoot, and above all – listen.   The VCS takes seriously Voalte’s recognition that our users were fundamental in building the app, and are just as critical now as we continue to update and improve it.   VCSs strive to know their hospitals well enough to anticipate (and head off) problems and issues, but they also listen - to users’ suggestions, compliments, comments, and frustrations.  Then they report back to Sarasota.  VCSs play a key role in helping to make a user’s idea become a reality inside the Voalte One solution.

Regardless of the style a company chooses to provide it, excellent customer service, executed well, breeds loyalty.  Period.  Consumers want their experiences to be effortless, and provided flawlessly.  When a company exceeds expectations, not only will they keep coming back, they’ll insist that their friends and colleagues do as well.  Voalte works hard every day to earn new “raving fans.”  Coming up with the VCS program to go the extra mile for our users is just one example of how we stay in tune with their needs.

In other words, we genuinely love running to get the fresh bag of lettuce before y’all ask.  :)   

As a young, fast growing company, trade shows can provide a wealth of knowledge, and lead to an overwhelming amount of success. Two weeks ago, Voalte had the chance to participate in the Cerner Health Conference out in Kansas City, Missouri. We had a booth setup, ready to demonstrate our Voalte One Nursing Communication Solution where we were able to speak face-to-face with current customers in addition to potential customers. Our booth screamed pink and green and our “pink pants crew” triggered lots of attention across the show floor driving more traffic towards our location.   

What made CHC different from other shows I had attended in the past is that it was a user conference. In other words, only Cerner customers were able to attend. In addition, Voalte and Cerner were able to join forces to enhance communication at the point-of-care, by integrating with Cerner on a few different levels at the conference. We showed Voalte One integration at the CareAware Connect station as well as the Alert Link Alarm Management Station. Cerner showcased these products and others in their Solutions Gallery. This Solutions Gallery was an amazing resource of EMR knowledge. We were able to learn as much as possible about their EMR and Middleware platforms, iBus and Alert Link, as well as new up-and-coming Cerner products!   

Looking back, I can’t help but think of CHC’s tagline, “Because it’s personal”. At the end of the conference, I was able to meet face-to-face with hundreds of potential customers, some of which I had been speaking with for seven months or more. Which goes to show you, building relationships before hand is key, but being able to interact face-to-face can make all the difference. And when you stop and think about it, the same is true in healthcare.

Healthcare is personal, shouldn’t clinical communication be personal too? 

Recently I was given the opportunity to travel to California and engage in an onsite meeting. We met with an organization that was seeking out a communications platform to accommodate their new medical campus. Aside from the traditional pink pants buzz, our presence created an overwhelming sense of optimism. After years of handling unintelligent legacy devices, a brief exposure to innovation opened their eyes and left them with a trending notion: change is coming.

The 3 most talked about features included:

1. Texting – Blown away by the increased functionality and customization, nurses immediately gravitated to the personalized texting feature. They understood what texting provided and how it could help improve workflow efficiency. 

2. No Alarm Fatigue – Due to the immense call volume per shift, nurses were cringing at the sound of their phone. A phone call for something as simple as ice-chips? Not anymore. Voalte eliminates 80% of ringing phones, decreases alarm fatigue, and helps streamline communication. Consequently, we have happy nurses and an overall positive end-user experience.

3. One Device – With a legacy phone dangling from her neck, and a “Batman Utility Belt” full of pagers, we bumped into a nurse that set a new Voalte record for devices carried (6). With Voalte, caregivers can shed some device weight with a solution that eliminates excess pagers and phones.

Not only did caregivers embrace the functionality, they also understood the BIG picture. Healthcare is a constantly evolving, ever-changing field. By integrating with Voalte, hospitals are provided with a communication platform that can expand to meet their needs. Overall, our visit opened their eyes to innovation, making a lasting impression upon their staff members with thoughts of pink on their mind...

My name is Alex Brown and I love reading through release notes, beta testing new software and anxiously watching new product announcements (Dreamforce, AppleKeynotes, etc.). Basically I’m addicted to new features.

I’m in charge of scoping and implementing the IT systems that help Voalte employees work smarter, not harder. Many of our IT vendors are using Agile based development (So are We!), leading to a constant flow of new features. To me new features = new workflows.

For example, this past spring Box.com (our Document Management and Collaboration System) revamped their file comment system to be similar to a facebook-esque newsfeed, including all the relevant history of a file as well as tasks, comments, and revisions. This new feature allowed us to revamp our Travel Authorization Workflow, our Deployment Template Workflow, and our Marketing Collateral Workflow. My challenge is making sure our workflows are the best they can be, utilizing the new available features.

In the world of Voalte a great example of where new features = new workflows is in our VoalteOne 2.0 Release. With the introduction of Read Receipts caregivers no longer have to constantly ping colleagues as to whether or not they read a certain message (i.e. “Can I get ice in Room 205?”). Instead, they can check for a read receipt and if the other party doesn’t read a message in time they can transfer the request to someone else. The challenge for hospitals is having people who re-evaluate workflows actually take into account all the new features available to them.

Who on your staff turns new features into new workflows?

Fresh faces and excitement fill the room before each training class begins. Users chitchat amongst themselves thinking “what in the world is this lady going to train us on today?” They discuss what’s going on with their patients, their team dynamics, and their life in general. Often times, people come into class with preconceived notions from past in-service trainings and possible knowledge of iPhone or smartphone use. They may even discuss how Voalte will be perceived among their coworkers.

Now fast forward to the day of the unit’s “go-live”. Users may be a bit nervous about using Voalte. But there will be two major differences between those that attended training and those that did not: adoption and usability.

Users that attended training leave class excited about Voalte and how it will improve communication. Those that did not attend may feel obligated to use something they hardly know anything about. Adoption is key to the success of the Voalte implementation – or any other technology for that matter. Training class attendees know how to “Add to Favorites”, send feedback, find their extension, add contacts to the directory, and so much more. Also during training, users are given a user guide that provides step-by-step instructions on the Voalte application. If you do not attend training you are given a phone and left to ask questions that could have been answered. That person will only be able to use the basic functions of the application and are ultimately left at the mercy of their colleagues.

Attending training allows users to sit down and think about how they will use the application in real time, as they get the opportunity to practice operating the phones in class. As various features are explained, it is amazing seeing the       “ah-ha” moments people have about what the application can do and how Voalte will help with communication among colleagues in their unit, as well as throughout the entire hospital. They will now be able to receive information in a faster and more efficient manner. Training is usually the first point of contact we have with end users and is so critical to the success of the project.

See you in the next training class….

In my travels working with customers and partners I have the pleasure of talking with hospital management teams and end users about Voalte. Frequently our conversations gravitate to the lack of modern wireless communication solutions in healthcare and the truly unique capabilities Voalte brings to the market.

1. Convenience – Voalte eliminates the need for the nurse's "tool belt" of multiple devices and applications. Text messaging, alarms/notifications, and voice communications all flow naturally to a single smartphone application.

 

2. Ease of Use – Why is Apple selling 350,000+ iPhones Per DAY? It's intuitive and simple to use. Voalte leverages the advantages of the robust iPhone hardware and a software application that provides all of a caregiver's communications needs on a shared device with a single sign-on.

 

3. Functionality – I tried text messaging on my old Nokia cell phone. Remember pushing each button 1,2, or 3 times to get the letter you wanted? Forget it. The advent of full keyboards made text messaging a mainstay of communication in the modern world. The non-smartphone handsets currently used in most hospitals today provide the same functionality you abandoned 10 years ago in your personal life.

 

4. Efficiency – The workload of nurses and physicians is astounding. Few jobs require keeping multiple "balls in the air" quite like the hospital environment. A study shows that communication with team members, or other departments, accounts for 20.6% of nurse's time. Providing more streamlined communications leads to happier more effective caregivers. The result is more time spent at the bedside with patients and fewer mistakes. Voalte provides better outcomes and happier patients. This all leads to higher reimbursement and lower cost to the hospital and our over burdened healthcare system.

 

5. Flexibility – The typical process for replacing broken wireless phones in the hospital is for the telecom team to order the same proprietary phones they have been using for decades. The "new" handsets may be a different color or shape, but provide the same limited functionality and user interface they've always had. Why replace a dead-end phone with another dead-end phone?

 

Voalte can custom provision iPhones tailored to the hospital system's needs or even customize by department. Voice, alarms, and text are just the beginning. Voalte puts the power of 50,000+ medical applications in your hands at the bedside – drug reference, med math calculators, language translation – the options are endless and growing every day. Shouldn't your wireless hardware and software solution have the flexibility to grow and change with your communication needs?