Communicating in the modern nursing work environment is difficult.  In order to provide the best level of patient care, nurses need to be constantly accessible by several sources.  At any given time nurses need to be aware of patient and family requests, while maintaining ongoing communication with physicians.  In addition, nurses must also keep track of patient conditions that are communicated through mechanical devices such as patient monitors.

Juggling information from these sources is already complex, yet the majority of US hospitals add to the problem by lacking effective communication technology.  A study by Forrester Research showed that the inefficient communication methods most nurses are forced to rely on cause major drains on productivity.

A few examples from the study:

• “The majority of nurses stated they would save somewhere between 30 minutes to one hour per day with instant access to experts.”
• “A sizable percentage of nurses — 65% — said they spent from 20 minutes to more than one hour per day trying to reach other medical staff. This includes 26% that spend more than one hour per day and another 39% that spend from 20 minutes to one hour.”
• Regarding elimination of physician-nurse missed communications and phone tag, “estimates of up to one hour per day would be saved by 54% of nurses, and another 26% indicated it would save them from 16 to 30 minutes per day.”

It is no secret that the largest item on the average hospitals expense sheet is employee compensation.  Accordingly, this collective drain on nurse productivity adds a big cost for hospitals.  What isn’t as obvious is the negative impact poor nurse communications has on patient care.

Aside from time wasted on poor communications that could be spent with patients, inferior communication platforms also lead to more troubling outcomes.  Take for example, the fall risk patient who needs to use the restroom and caregivers are too slow to respond to their nurse call request—and arrive only in time to see the patient has fallen while trying to use the restroom by themselves.

Wireless Nurse Communication as a Solution

Current nurse communication problems stem fr0m the fact that most nurses, 78% according to the Forrester Research study, use telephones as their main communication vehicle.  Yet the majority of US hospitals rely on wired telephones, even though nurses are highly mobile.  As a result, communication breakdown is inevitable.

New nurse communication technology such as Dalcon Alert provide a wireless solution for the modern hospital.  Dalcon Alert, in tandem with wireless phones, allows nurses to stay in constant contact with patients, staff, and physicians while staying on the move. The Forrester Research study showed that 74% of nurse respondents could save a significant amount of time each day with wireless phones.

In addition to improved productivity, Dalcon Alert improves patient care by allowing nurses to receive patient care alerts directly on their wireless device.  For example, caregivers receive nurse calls, iv-pump alerts, fall alerts and more on their phones.