Vocera Unveils Alarm Management And Analytics Solutions To Reduce Alarm Fatigue

Vocera Also Enhances its Care Experience Solutions to Empower Nurse Leader Rounding and Streamline Post-Care Calls 

Vocera Communications, Inc., the leading provider of integrated, intelligent communication solutions for mission-critical mobile environments, recently unveiled Vocera Alarm Management and Vocera Alarm Analytics, two new intelligent solutions designed to increase patient safety and combat clinician alarm fatigue. In addition, the company announced the latest version of Vocera Care Experience, a comprehensive solution that enables hospitals to improve patient experience, including significant enhancements to the Care Rounds, Care Calls and Business Intelligence modules.

Vocera Alarm Management and Analytics
Communication breakdowns caused by alarm fatigue have become a top patient safety concern and a regulatory priority. Thousands of alarm signals sound within a hospital every day, yet The Joint Commission estimates that 85-99 percent of those alarms do not require immediate clinical intervention. As a result, care teams often suffer from alarm fatigue and become immune to alarms, which can have serious or fatal consequences. Due to patient safety risks associated with alarm fatigue, The Joint Commission announced a new National Patient Safety Goal on clinical alarm safety, effective January 2014, which requires hospitals to meet multi-phase requirements for alarm management policies and practices.  

Addressing this critical issue, Vocera Alarm Management improves the ability of clinicians to prioritize and respond in real-time to critical alarms based on contextual evidence, such as waveforms and vital signs. The Vocera solution works with the clinician’s mobile device of choice: smartphone, tablet or the hands-free, wearable Vocera badge. Additionally, care teams using Vocera Alarm Management are able to streamline clinical workflows across units by intelligently filtering and escalating alarms. 

Vocera Alarm Management can be used in conjunction with Vocera Alarm Analytics, providing hospitals with concrete data to improve alarm management strategy. Real-time data feeds are viewed in an intuitive dashboard on tablets or desktops. Extensive reporting and benchmarking capabilities allow immediate and ongoing refinement of clinical care processes. Vocera Alarm Analytics reports aggregate alarm and response data, providing the necessary evidence to address the Joint Commission National Patient Safety Goal on alarm management.

“The Vocera alarm management solution is designed to reduce alarm fatigue by offering a closed-loop secondary alarm notification system with audio-visual cues and contextual data to improve clinical workflow across units,” said Rhonda Collins, MSN, RN, chief nursing officer of Vocera. “The solution empowers care teams to act more efficiently and make more informed decisions, which in turn positively impacts patient safety and outcomes.”  

Vocera Care Experience
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nine out of 10 adults who receive routine medical advice find it incomprehensible. The result is a revolving door where one in five Medicare patients are readmitted within 30 days, and Medicare spends at least $26B on patients who end up returning to the hospital. Since the implementation of Value-Based Purchasing and other care quality reimbursement rules from the Affordable Care Act, many hospitals are focused on reducing readmission rates and improving care quality while also improving patient satisfaction.  

Vocera Care Experience takes a comprehensive approach to managing patient experience by combining patient engagement, communication and care coordination tools into one application suite. With newly enhanced Care Rounds, Care Calls and Business Intelligence modules, customers are better able to manage patient experience longitudinally, from the first impression to the last, to improve patient outcomes and increase workflow efficiencies.  

Truman Medical Centers, in Kansas City, Missouri, recently selected Vocera Care Experience to hardwire more meaningful and manageable nurse rounding, streamline patient follow-up calls, and improve communications to patients and their families during hospital discharge to reduce readmissions. 

“Vocera offers our organization an opportunity to foster stronger care team-patient relationships by increasing patient visibility of nurse team leaders and limiting patient follow-up calls to the department most closely connected to the patient’s care,” said Mark McPhee, MD, MHCM, executive vice president of clinical coordination at Truman Medical Centers. “The Vocera solution has the potential to improve both patient quality of care and staff satisfaction.” 

Hospitals and health systems currently using Vocera Care Experience include University of Chicago Medical Center in Chicago, Illinois and White Plains Hospital in White Plains, New York, which both have increased patient satisfaction; and Cullman Regional Medical Center in Cullman, Alabama, which has reduced readmission rates by 15 percent. 

“Successful hospitals are focused on tools and technologies that improve the human experience while driving improvement in quality, safety and efficiency. Vocera Care Experience creates a consistent, seamless healthcare experience that connects vital information across the entire continuum of care to every care team member when they need it, including patients and families,” said Bridget Duffy, MD, chief medical officer of Vocera. 

Learn more about Vocera Alarm Management and Alarm Analytics and Vocera Care Experience by visiting us online. 

About Truman Medical Centers
Truman Medical Centers is a not-for-profit two acute-care hospital health system in Kansas City. The TMC Health System includes TMC Hospital Hill, TMC Lakewood, TMC Behavioral Health, the Jackson County Health Department and a number of primary care practices throughout Eastern Jackson County. Recently named one of the nation’s top academic medical centers, TMC is the primary teaching hospital for the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy and Dentistry and specializes in chronic disease management, orthopaedics, family medicine, women’s health, and trauma services. For more information, visit www.trumed.org. 

About Vocera
Vocera empowers integrated, intelligent communication in healthcare, hospitality, energy and other mission-critical mobile environments. Vocera is widely recognized for developing smarter ways to communicate that improve patient and customer satisfaction with the Vocera Communication and Care Experience solutions. Vocera provides technology innovations and thought leadership that humanize healthcare for patients, families and care teams and improve customer experience in more than 1,200 organizations worldwide. Vocera is headquartered in San Jose, Calif., with offices in San Francisco, Tennessee, Canada, India, Dubai and the United Kingdom. For more information, visit www.vocera.com.