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Delaware hospital uses wireless communication device

Staff Development Weekly: Insight on Evidence-Based Practice in Education, April 26, 2007

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A Delaware children's hospital is seeing results from its new wireless communication system that reduces noise, thereby improving the hospital's environment, while facilitating quick communication.

Alfred I. DuPont Hospital for Children in Wilmington, DE, implemented the Vocera Communications System last September. The system uses small, hands-free electronic badges that use voice recognition technology, allowing staff members to log into the system by speaking their name into the badge and then saying a colleague's name in order to communicate with the colleague. The badges make communication between caregivers easier, and therefore shorten patient assessment by reducing the time spent retrieving a nurse's contact information or memorizing phone extensions.

Right now, the hospital has obtained about 20 badges. An efficiency analysis conducted at St. Agnes Medical Center in Baltimore reported that the system helps nurses reduce the average time needed to conclude patient requests by 51%, and that overhead paging was decreased by about 80%.This is due in part to the reduction in nurses' travel time and their increased ability to efficiently multitask, facilitated by the improved communication.

Sources: The Wilmington Journal, The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

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