Vocera Gets Endorsed By AHA
Chicago, Illinois (February 16, 2011) – The American Hospital Association (AHA), has exclusively endorsed the Vocera Hand-Off Solution as the preferred patient hand-off solution for its membership of nearly 5,000 hospitals and 37,000 health care professionals. AHA Solutions, Inc., a subsidiary of AHA, awards the AHA endorsement to products and services that help member hospitals and health care organizations achieve operational excellence.
The Vocera solution improves hand-off performance — at change of shift, during patient transfers, and at physician sign-out — minimizing the possibility of error and missed connections. Complementing existing communication and electronic medical record systems, the Vocera Hand-Off Solution helps hospitals and ambulatory care providers standardize, manage, and monitor the transition of medical information across care teams.
http://www.vocera.com/downloads/VHO_Technology_and_Benefits.pdf
We don’t know personally how well Vocera’s handoff system works. We have seen some of their other products that seem to provide good value. The product that we are familiar with is a wearable voice transmitter that allows health professionals to instantly voice “page” one another and talk like a walkie talkie. This comes in handy because health professionals often have their hands full. Example: sometimes a nurse needs to call an aid into a room to help move a patient. With Vocera’s voice transmitter system he or she can do this while still adjusting the IV or checking vitals.
So congratulations to Vocera for this ringing endorsement. While we’d be happy to share such a lofty recognition, we also recognize that the endorsement comes from the top down: the hospital system. Our approach is different. We are addressing communication issues from the other direction: the bottom up. Our goal is to be the solution endorsed by health professionals. Big difference. The unfortunate trend in health care has recently been for the system to dictate the solution to the individual (whether it be patient or health professional). We want to see that perspective change. We don’t know if we’ll be the one who does it. All we know is, until a product gains the full endorsement of individual users, there will still be work to be done.
