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St. Rita’s Rapid Response Team Finds PerfectServe’s Confirmed Voice Messaging Faster and More Reliable Than Paging
September 3, 2007
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — When the St. Rita’s Medical Center Rapid Response team in Lima, Ohio, found they were missing pages, they talked to PerfectServe Client Services Specialist Mary Hatcher.
“I wasn’t surprised to hear they were having problems,” Hatcher said. “The paging industry is contracting, and it’s not unusual for providers’ quality to suffer. Paging delays and lost messages are not that unusual these days, unfortunately.”
Mary suggested to Karen Vennekotter, Associate Nursing Administrator, that the team try voice message alerts delivered to cell phones.
Informal test found four-minute differential
“For a week or so, each member of the team carried both a cell phone and a pager,” Vennekotter recalled. “Our informal, side-by-side test determined that it actually took four minutes longer for the team to be notified by pager than by cell phone.
“In fact, sometimes, our people would already be at the room of the patient needing the help before their pager would go off.
“Needless to say, we are just ecstatic now with the use of the cell phones. Our team gets the calls within seconds, and they’re on their way immediately.”
PerfectServe is a key component to the success of the Rapid Response team, according to Vennekotter, thanks to its ability to notify numerous individuals simultaneously.
“This has been a very easy program to institute, thanks to PerfectServe,” Vennekotter said. “When the nurse needs assistance, she just dials the Rapid Response number, and the team is there.”
The unique capabilities of PerfectServe
“I have to say, I was a little nervous when Mary first recommended voice messaging as a solution,” Vennekotter recalled. “I thought, gosh, if they’re going to have to access a voicemail, how long is that going to take? Well, it turned out fantastic.”
The key to the success of the process is PerfectServe’s unique ability to push a voice message immediately to a large number of phones simultaneously based on the complex workflow of each recipient.
PerfectServe is able to:
• Gather a few key facts provided by the caller.
• Assemble those facts into a computer-generated message.
• Determine which team members are on-call the moment a call is placed.
• Ring the phone of each appropriate team member
• Play the assembled message, informing team members of the nature of the alert, and the location of the patient in need.
• In the event that a specific team member fails to retrieve the message within the pre-determined two-minute limit, the message re-notifies the team member’s mobile phone, and eventually will escalate and notify the team member’s main department telephone number.
All of this compares with the limitations of paging, in which no one – not even the paging company itself – can determine whether an individual team member has received a page.
PerfectServe contributes to positive outcomes
Vennekotter believes the Rapid Response team has made a difference at St. Rita’s. “We’ve had some very good patient outcomes. The Rapid Response initiative has been a wonderful resource for our staff nurses, whenever they’re just not sure what’s going on with a patient. PerfectServe has made a big difference in our Rapid Response capabilities.
“And I think staff satisfaction is much improved as well. For a nurse to be able to dial a four-digit number and have the right people responding – immediately – has been phenomenal. PerfectServe has helped us make that happen.”
About PerfectServe, Inc.
The PerfectServe physician-contact network automatically routes calls and messages to the right doctor, at the right time, in the precise way each physician wishes to be reached. Communication occurs faster, with greater efficiency and safety, because PerfectServe assembles and maintains the entire communications workflow and contact preferences for every medical staff physician, for every moment of every day. The company currently serves over 12,000 physicians in 150 markets across the U.S. For more information, visit www.perfectserve.com.