Stratford, CT -- (ReleaseWire) -- 11/13/2007 -- As part of the AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center (ARMC) City Campus, the George F. Lynn Harmony Pavilion in Atlantic City, New Jersey recently opened its Emergency Center (EC), the first floor of a seven-story, $128 million construction project. The remainder of the City Campus expansion will be finished by mid-2008.
The AtlantiCare facility will feature the latest advances in medical technology and equipment throughout the patient tower, which in addition to the new Emergency Center will include a Radiology Department, Intensive Care Unit and four, new medical surgical floors.
With the kick-off of the new facility, AtlantiCare wanted to explore new options for communications. Taking the lead on researching wireless solutions for the new tower, Emergency Center Medical Director, Thomas Brabson, DO, visited similar hospitals to investigate options for clinical technology and staff communications. ARMC selected the Vocera (www.vocera.com) wireless platform, which enables voice-activated communications throughout a hospital building or campus.
Using light-weight, wearable, hands-free badges, ARMC physicians and staff use Vocera to initiate instant voice conversations among team members, across groups and throughout the hospital. Because the new tower’s EC is spread out over a greater physical area than the previous Emergency Department and includes all private rooms, a large trauma bay and an emergency CT scan facility, a mobile communication solution was needed to ease workflow and improve patient and staff safety.
TPC Healthcare is committed to using proven delivery methods and providing support for Vocera installations. The wireless communication platform was late to make it on ARMC’s capital budget list, creating a short window to deliver. TPC’s ability to mobilize a deployment team quickly to meet project deadlines cemented the relationship.
When TPC was brought on board, the timeline to delivery was aggressive – less than three weeks to have the system up and running by the go-live date. TPC received tremendous cooperation from the hospital’s IT and clinical teams to accomplish a great deal in a very short amount of time.
Because the new building was still in the final construction phase and had an independent wireless network being deployed, TPC set up a temporary system in the old Emergency Department to begin training and database development. For the week leading up to go-live, TPC provided extensive training around the clock with physicians and staff who would be using the new Vocera system. After this work was accomplished, the database was transferred to the production system the weekend prior to the hospital’s launch date.
At 6 am on Monday, October 15, ARMC’s new Emergency Center was ready to admit patients with the Vocera solution in place. Although initially being installed in the EC, ARMC is considering using the Vocera system throughout the George F. Lynn Harmony Pavilion.
“We knew clinical users were going to rely on Vocera from opening day on. We were impressed with how TPC’s staff met our needs to deliver on time,” says Charles Carr, chief technologist for AtlantiCare. Carr also points out that the Vocera platform paves the way for future technology innovation.
“In the old Emergency Department, you could see from one end to the other,” says Bill McKenna, vice president of TPC Healthcare. “The new facility is more than double the size of the original and features private rooms. The staff needed a simple, fast, efficient way to communicate to remote areas of the hospital and this is where a Vocera solution is a great fit.”
Early results of the Vocera installation have been extremely positive. “We previously used zone phones that had to be unholstered and dialed by hand,” said Brabson. Using hands-free communication helps us work more efficiently, which contributes to quality care.”
ABOUT TPC HEALTHCARE
Headquartered in Stratford, Connecticut, TPC Healthcare is a full-service technology and communications solutions provider delivering wireless voice, workflow/middleware messaging applications and managed support services to healthcare organizations. TPC Healthcare focuses on offering customers technology expertise, exceptional levels of service and years of experience developing healthcare communications solutions. For more information, visit http://www.tpchealthcare.com.