Norwalk Hospital
Norwalk Hospital is a private, nonprofit, 328-bed facility in Fairfield County, Connecticut. Founded more than 100 years ago, the hospital has maintained a tradition of outstanding service to neighboring communities and is dedicated to excellence in patient care. Norwalk is also a teaching hospital and its approach to new technology adoption serves as a lesson for all hospitals facing communication challenges.
Improving Patient Care
“We had had great difficulties with communication in our nursing units,” explains Beverly Lyon, a patient care services director at Norwalk Hospital who was an integral member of Norwalk’s communication technology search team. “Disruptive overhead paging made it difficult to communicate, so our major objective was to create a quieter environment,” she says.
Always on the lookout for new technologies to improve care, Norwalk Hospital’s then-CIO, Christian Randon, read about a breakthrough VoWiFi communication solution called Vocera — a wireless communications system that employs a badge to communicate using naturally spoken commands — and directed IT staff to research solutions and providers.
Finding the Right Communication Technology Solution Provider
To determine whether Vocera could work at Norwalk, the hospital assembled a cross-functional team of technologists, nurses, clinicians and doctors to find the right solution provider to install and support the technology. Hospital IT staff researched Vocera, making sure existing infrastructure could support the technology. Then they carefully vetted all solution providers to ensure the hospital would have the proper level of support after deployment.
Next, the Norwalk team visited another hospital that had deployed a similar system. The team toured the facility and spoke with nursing staff. They also met with TPC Healthcare, the technology solution provider that had installed and supported the other hospital’s Vocera deployment. The Norwalk team was immediately impressed and put TPC Healthcare on its vendor list.
The team then met with several, national vendors but was concerned about support. “The remote support being offered after installation was insufficient,” recalls Bernadette Rose, leader of the Vocera search team. Adds Lyon, “We thought working with a local company would be easier and more convenient.”
TPC Healthcare had successfully deployed Vocera at several area hospitals and had a reputation for being hands-on and working with healthcare customers from pre-sales through installation and afterwards. “TPC Healthcare took on a partner role,” says Rose. “They worked right along beside us, like they were part of the hospital.”
In 2006, Norwalk Hospital awarded TPC Healthcare the contract for installing and supporting Vocera. In the summer of 2007, TPC Healthcare deployed Vocera in stages to over 600 users. By all accounts, the rollout went very smoothly.
Reliable Service and Support
TPC Healthcare’s involvement with Norwalk Hospital did not end after deployment. The customer care team went unit to unit during all three shifts, working around the clock to train staff on Vocera technology. TPC Healthcare provided handy training tools and even now continues to be a supportive presence at the hospital.
“A TPC Healthcare customer care representative stops by frequently and we always learn something new,” says Renée Peart, a med-surge patient care manager at Norwalk. More importantly, hospital staff has really taken to Vocera. “Response time is dramatically improved. Instead of searching room to room, you can use your Vocera badge to locate staff. Then you can talk hands-free,” says Peart.
Also, when patients are in trouble and need the Rapid Response team, nurses now stay with the patient until help arrives instead of leaving to search for help. What started out as a technology project to reduce noise has yielded tremendous workflow and patient safety benefits.
A Successful Rollout and a Satisfied Staff
“Collaboration is critical,” says Kenny Schiff, managing partner at TPC Healthcare. “Success requires clearly articulated business goals, sound IT leadership, a well-designed infrastructure, the right product for your environment, a reliable vendor and clinical leadership. If your hospital is weak in any one of these areas, your project may be at risk. Norwalk built the right internal coalition and we collaborated for success,” says Schiff.
According to Schiff, “They also recognized their vulnerabilities in terms of their wireless and network infrastructure and did what was necessary to meet these demands.”
Norwalk Hospital also picked the right technology solution partner in TPC Healthcare. “We’re local. We work on-site and we help customers formulate and achieve reasonable project goals,” explains Schiff.
About TPC Healthcare
Headquartered in Stratford, Connecticut, TPC Healthcare is a full-service technology and communications solutions provider delivering wireless voice, workflow/middleware messaging applications and managed support services to healthcare organizations. TPC Healthcare focuses on offering customers technology expertise, exceptional levels of service and years of experience developing healthcare communications solutions. For more information, visit www.tpchealthcare.com.