PerfectServe One-2-One streamlines hospital communication, critical factor in patient safety

May 2005

One number, one call to reach any physician, anytime

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — On May 21, 2005, PerfectServe, a national company specializing in patient care communications, will introduce its proven PerfectServe One-2-One hospital-to-physician contact solution, a calling system designed to reduce clinical communication cycle-times - allowing nurses and doctors to speed clinical decisions and improve the quality of patient care and staff productivity.

PerfectServe is rolling out its new platform at the American College of Physician Executives Spring Institute and 30th Annual Meeting May 20-25 in Boston.

"The importance of communication to patient safety can scarcely be overstressed," says PerfectServe President and CEO Terrell Edwards. "In fact, study after study has underscored fast, clear, efficient communication between medical personnel as a critical factor." He cited as examples:

• The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, an independent not-for-profit group, studied sentinel event statistics in the United States from 1995 to 2004 and found communication to be the No. 1 root cause of delays in treatment.
• The Leapfrog Group, a consortium of private and public employers, recommended an ICU Physician Staffing Standard by which critical-care physicians can return at least 95 percent of ICU pages within five minutes. The group was formed in response to a 1999 Institute of Medicine report attributing an estimated 98,000 deaths per year to preventable medical errors made in hospitals.

A study conducted by the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center has proven the superiority of the PerfectServe One-2-One platform. Presented in May 2005, the study found that PerfectServe One-2-One:

• Significantly speeded nurse-to-physician contact time - reducing it by more than 70 percent in the ICU alone.
• Increased the number of contacts made in less than two minutes by a factor of 10.
• Reduced subsequent calls to physicians made after the initial call by up to 81 percent.

"We're enabling a standardized process where one does not exist. What you've had until now can only be described as chaotic," says Edwards.

Process validated at Ohio hospital

PerfectServe validated its process at the 222-bed Fairfield Medical Center in Lancaster, Ohio. The platform was shown to shave from two to five-plus minutes per call at the medical facility that annually logs 132,000 nurse-to-doctor calls about patient-care issues demanding responsiveness and reliability.

"Each physician wants to be reached in a different way at different times — cell phones, home phones, pagers of various types. PerfectServe knows which tool to contact for each physician, for every moment in time," says Dr. Jerome Roche Jr., Fairfield's vice president and chief medical officer.

PerfectServe will present a workshop for physicians, "Introduction to the PerfectServe One-2-One Hospital-to-Physician Contact Solution" at the ACPE meeting at 4:45 p.m. Saturday, May 21, and 12:30 p.m. Monday, May 23.

"We've got a way to streamline hospital communication because it involves fewer steps, fewer decision points and fewer communication handoffs," explains Edwards. "The advantages we offer to both hospitals and physicians are impressive, including reduced potential for medical error, fewer delays in care, better use of nurse staff time and less stress for medical teams in general. As the University of Colorado study proves, these advantages are real and measurable."

How it works

PerfectServe One-2-One helps eliminate the potential for human error in communication processes by replacing answering services, hospital switchboards and legacy messaging systems.

With PerfectServe, nurses and other staff members press a single speed-dial button from any hospital department phone to call any staff physician — 24 hours a day, seven days a week. PerfectServe One-2-One follows a predefined call path to reach every doctor according to his or her preferences.

"We call it a digital protocol," says Edwards. "When a nurse dials into PerfectServe and then enters an extension for a specific doctor, the call routes automatically along the precise call path the physician has selected for that moment in time. Every variable is considered, such as on-call schedules, instructions for call type and priority and individual physician contact preferences such as cell phone, home phone and voice message with pager or other wireless device."

Edwards says the PerfectServe One-2-One system provides unprecedented control over hospital/physician communication processes.

About PerfectServe

PerfectServe Inc. is the nation's leading provider of physician contact and communication management solutions. The company's flagship products — PerfectServe One-2-One for Hospitals and PerfectServe OnCall for Practices — provide unprecedented accuracy, reliability and personal control over urgent communication processes. Compared to conventional approaches — answering services, hospital switchboards and legacy messaging systems, PerfectServe eliminate errors and delays and speeds communication cycle-times. So care is delivered more efficiently and effectively. PerfectServe solutions help physicians and hospitals manage interactions with more than 5 million patients across America.