INDIANAPOLIS, IN- Reach & Respond, Indianapolis-based mass communication licensers, has closed a contract to provide their mass communication system services to Community Health Networks. The Reach & Respond system has been implemented in the IT department and is anticipated to expand throughout the entire organization.
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The 53 year old health network approached Reach & Respond for a better solution to their paging system. Their semi-automated communication system was not as quick and efficient as it needed to be. With a large staff of people who are on-call, in and out at different times of day and a part of 24 hour organization they needed to a more effective, less time consuming process. The company was able to build a system to specifically meet the needs of Community.
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“The flexibility of Reach & Respond to customize their system to fit each clients needs is really what locked us in,” said Rick Copple, Director of IT for Community Health Networks. “We told them what we needed and they were more than happy to build it in to their existing system.”
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About Reach & Respond:
Reach & Respond is an “interactive” two way communication system. A Web-based solution, Reach & Respond allows a single person to notify specific individuals or thousands of people in a matter of seconds and track their responses; wherever in the world they happen to be. Built using the 1Num Technology this product enables communities and large organizations to broadcast alerts and receive responses.
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When Life Hangs in the Balance 15 Minutes is an Eternity
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Challenge:
Indianapolis-based Community Health Network, established in 1956, is a
leading not-for-profit health system offering convenient access to expert
physicians, advanced treatments and leading-edge technology. At the center
of the organization is the IT department which supports 6,000 desktops, 550
servers, nine corporations and more than 70 sites within the health
system.
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Like many IT departments, there is a limited staff to handle the day to day
tasks and support all of the locations and departments within the network.
Unlike a typical office, downtime or system failure is not just an
inconvenience. When doctors and nurses can’t access critical information, a
patient’s life may hang in the balance.
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To be as efficient as possible, Community created a central call center to
manage the help desk. This center monitors system functions and manages
interactions between the users and the technicians supporting the
multi-location health network. Community’s previous communication system
was a combination of automated and manual processes. In the event of a
problem or emergency the server notifies the department and dispatches a
message to a technician. Technicians were alerted, via text, voice message
or email.
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The process slowed down waiting for response from the technicians. The
protocol began with an automated paging system, but with no built in
mechanism for feedback, the help desk dispatcher waited 15 minutes for a
response before calling the next number or device. This continued until
someone was reached.
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A complex rotation and on-call was required to support the organization
24/7. Depending on the time of day, individual technicians might prefer
their cell, home phone, pagers or computer. The trial and error process
was cumbersome, inefficient and slow.
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Waiting for a technician to respond might leave a nursing station without
access to patient information or other medical records.
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Solution:
Community Health Networks turned to Reach & Respond, a product of
e-Practical Solutions, for a better answer. The new system updates employee status daily, categorizes each person by their schedule and lists methods of contact in order of preference. A hierarchy of this type is vital because employee contacts change depending on if they are at home, with patients, on-call, etc. Reach & Respond custom built this feature specifically for Community.
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“The flexibility of Reach & Respond to customize their system to fit each client’s needs is really what locked us in,” said Rick Copple, V.P. & Chief Technology Officer for Community Health Networks. “We told them what we needed and they were more than happy to build it into their existing system.”
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The old system was semi-automated but lacked feedback capabilities. Reach & Respond not only automates the entire process but sends the response
directly to the system notifying dispatch. This frees the phone lines, leaving the help desk and IT department available to solve problems and handle emergencies.
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Community looked for a system that was outsourced, they also outsource their help desk, in case of disaster, emergency or damage to the building. Reach & Respond is accessible remotely which allows Community to be on top of their game regardless of the situation at hand. “Reach & Respond was a great fit for us because of their redundant infrastructure, service and ease of access,” said Copple. “These features are crucial to our field and it ensures we have continuous uptime.”
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Implication:
Reach & Respond was a great choice for the present and future of Community Health Networks. The system has been going full force for 2 weeks and there have been no kinks or problems. “We did a test with some of our bigger groups before the full launch to all of our 70 groups,” said Copple. “We found very few problems all of which were minor and have since been tweaked to correct. There have been no glitches to date.”
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The organization is already discussing the possibility of integrating the Reach & Respond system into their Safety and Security department to notify the internal infrastructure of security breeches, abductions, etc. through Blackberry devices and picture mailing. The Community specific system would need a few features added, but in the long run the plan is to extend the use of this product network wide.
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“Reach & Respond has made our entire process so much more efficient, allowing us to rely on what is more important, our patients,” said Copple. “We are looking forward to working with Reach & Respond to implement the system throughout the entire Community Network in the next coming months.”
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For more information on Reach & Respond please visit www.reachandrespond.com or call 317. 286.4000.
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