THE CHALLENGE
A large hospital in North America had traditionally relied on an overhead paging system to communicate both emergency and non-emergency notifications to its staff. However, the paging system did not cover all areas of the hospital. The hospital wanted to ensure staff could receive alerts regardless of their location.
THE SOLUTION
The Alertus System, offered by Convergint Technologies, is known for its flexibility and scalability. This hospital chose it as the foundation to build the notification infrastructure it wanted. The Alertus System allowed the hospital to leverage existing infrastructure, as well as integrate with notification technologies it already had.
The hospital began by implementing the Alertus Desktop™ Notification solution to easily and effectively expand its notification reach for its initial phase. Hospital officials were finding caregivers spend a lot of time in front of a computer. Using Alertus Desktop provided a secondary source of communicating, although it’s becoming more of a primary way of communication as the hospital works to integrate it into all other processes.
The next step was integrating with existing alerting technologies. Administrators had bought a third-party system as a means for text messaging, but found it still wasn’t sufficient for reaching people in front of a computer. With the Alertus System’s ability to easily integrate with third-party technologies, the hospital was able to integrate the existing system with the Alertus System as a single solution. Instead of having to go to the text messaging system and then go to Alertus, operators just go to Alertus and it transfers the alert across all systems.
The hospital is also implementing the Alertus Fire Panel Control Interface and Alertus Text-to-Speech (TTS) technology with its existing overhead paging system. By using TTS instead of live voice announcements, dispatchers will be able to send consistent and clear notifications across multiple alerting endpoints. By implementing TTS, administrators will be able to just type what is needed to into the Alertus System one time, and it will send it to the overhead paging system as well as the computers.
THE SYSTEM IN ACTION
Recognizing that people’s stress levels rise during an emergency and their ability to think and react can be compromised, the hospital uses pre-programmed messages that are color coded by type of emergency, which reduces the chance of error.
This takes the burden and workload off the operators, who generally get hammered with calls during an emergency. The hospital also conducts a system test during each shift to help its operators maintain their ability to activate and operate the system. This regular testing schedule not only helps to train users with daily practice but also allows for a regular check to ensure the system is functioning properly.
CONCLUSION
The hospital is looking to continue to build upon the solid notification infrastructure they were able to build with the Alertus System. System operators are confident in their ability to deploy critical information across all integrated technologies for consistent, fast alerting.
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