Vocera Addresses Population Health With Enhanced Care Coordination Solution

Cloud-Based Secure Texting Solution Will Be Offered at No Cost to Vocera's 800+ U.S. Hospital Customers to Seamlessly Connect With Any Affiliated Healthcare Provider

San Jose, CA (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) - Vocera Communications, Inc. (NYSE:VCRA), the leading provider of intelligent, real-time communication and collaboration solutions for mission-critical mobile environments, announced today it will provide a cloud-based secure text messaging solution as a benefit to all of its U.S. healthcare customers, at no additional cost, for use by any of their affiliated healthcare providers. Vocera Secure Texting will connect seamlessly with Vocera Communication Systems installed in over 800 U.S. hospitals, enabling physicians to securely text care teams and improve care coordination, operational efficiencies, and patient experience.

Vocera Secure Texting combines convenience with privacy by providing a secure, easy to use, HIPAA-compliant alternative to SMS. The solution will allow physicians to securely communicate with all members of their patient's care team, while helping hospital CIOs improve security associated with protecting personal health information (PHI).

The lack of communication and coordination in health systems causes fragmented and inefficient care that can impact patient safety and patient experience. The Joint Commission states that roughly 70 percent of accidental deaths and serious injuries in hospitals are linked to communication failures. According to a study by the University of Maryland, $12 billion is wasted annually as a result of communications inefficiencies. Furthermore, the Spyglass Consulting Group report "Point of Care Communications for Physicians 2014," stated that 92 percent of physicians use SMS, an unsecure communication method, for patient care; risking HIPAA violations, data breaches, and fines of up to $1.5 million per year.

"Enabling better communication and collaboration across the entire continuum of care is critically important in making the transition to value-based care," said Bill Shickolovich, CIO of Tufts Medical Center. "We are working with Vocera to extend our communications platform to provide a secure means of keeping care teams in sync across sites and improve care coordination, safety, and ultimately, patient experience."

"With the rise of Population Health, the importance of care coordination is greater than ever. The best way to improve how care teams communicate and collaborate is to provide solutions that are easy to use, secure, and integrated with other clinical systems," said Brent Lang, president and CEO of Vocera. "Vocera Secure Texting is an important part of our care coordination solution that helps extended care teams reach the right person, at the right time, on the right device, with the right information, in the right place. Because protecting patient information is a priority for Vocera, we're providing the solution to all of our U.S. hospital customers at no additional cost."

Vocera Secure Texting will be available in Q2 of 2015, with demos available at the 2015 HIMSS Conference on April 12-16 in Chicago. Please visit us in Booth #2012.

To find out more about more and preregister for Vocera Secure Texting, visit us on our website: www.vocera.com/secure-texting.

About Tufts Medical Center
Tufts Medical Center is an internationally-respected academic medical center - a teaching hospital providing sophisticated and compassionate care for all patients from the tiniest newborns at its full-service pediatric hospital, Floating Hospital for Children to centenarians in its specialized Geriatrics clinic. Tufts Medical Center is the principal teaching hospital for Tufts University School of Medicine where groundbreaking medical and health policy research is conducted as one of the top 15 percent of independent institutions receiving federal research funding.

About Vocera
Vocera Communications, Inc. (NYSE:VCRA) empowers teams through intelligent, real-time communication and collaboration in healthcare, hospitality, energy, and other mission-critical mobile environments. Widely recognized for developing smarter ways to communicate, Vocera offers enterprise-class technologies that enable collaboration for mobile teams on their device of choice. Vocera solutions are installed in more than 1,200 organizations worldwide, improving efficiency, quality, safety and outcomes while creating optimal working and healing environments. Via the company's research collaborative, the Experience Innovation Network, Vocera also drives thought leadership for the healthcare industry and new standards in care delivery to elevate patient, family, nurse and physician experiences. Vocera is headquartered in San Jose, California, with offices in San Francisco, Tennessee, Canada, India, United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom. For more information, visit www.vocera.com and @VoceraComm on Twitter.

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