In the healthcare world, fast, reliable communication is vital. When caring for a patient, there are often multiple levels of caregivers that need to be given information. From the EMT bringing the patient in, to the nurse eventually assigned to the patient, to the clinicians running vital testing, and the physicians who will work to find a solution, it is crucial to be in the loop and have all the most current health information. Mobile communications make management of your healthcare needs much more manageable. HipLink offers a mobile communication software that is extremely reliable.

HipLink can change the communication strategy at any hospital:

Improved Communication Between all Caregivers

A patient in the hospital sees many different faces during their stay. In a given night, they could see an EMT, emergency room doctor, emergency room nurse, and a floor doctor and nurse when admitted. With so many people working on one case, all communication is crucial. Enter HipLink. HipLink is a secure communication software platform that can help healthcare professionals decrease incident response time and work towards a resolution more effectively. With the ability to send real-time, secure messages, escalation alerts and patient updates, all medical professionals can stay in the loop and be aware of all pertinent situations. Whether it is physcian-to-physcian, phycisian-to-nurse or EMT-to-trauma team or other clinicians, HipLink improves communication at every level. HipLink is also able to create “on-duty” groups to ensure that all appropriate members of a care team are receiving information, and ensuring that those who don’t need the message are not inundated with messages that they don’t have to take time to read, reducing alert fatigue. HipLink works on both Wi-Fi and cellular networks so no need to worry about gaps in service. 

Clear Interface

HipLink is simple to use. Smartphones, standard cell phones, tablets, pagers, and IP phones all are supported by HipLink. The messages sent via the HipLink app on phones are fully encrypted to ensure patient confidentiality and HIPAA compliance. The straightforward design of HipLink makes it easy for medical professionals to use. Medical communication works best when all parties involved understand the communication strategy and the mobile interface.

Integration with Existing Systems

Your medical center may already have a communication strategy in place. Not to worry - HipLink easily integrates into existing systems. These systems include Nurse Call, EMRs, laboratory systems, Bed tracking, and more. Integrate HipLink into your existing hospital system and allow it to improve your communication strategies.   

Each step of a hospital’s communication strategy is critical to providing the best patient care. HipLink uses a mobile communications system that is easy to use, simple to integrate, and will greatly improve communication between hospital staff members. Contact HipLink today to learn how our product can further improve your hospital’s communication strategy.        

Saving lives is one of the main purposes of a hospital. In order to fulfill this purpose, a hospital must have clear communication. Healthcare providers work together and are constantly in communication in order to provide the best healthcare possible. However, trying to manage multiple pages can cost both time and money. One hospital found a solution to this problem and it’s saving them in a big way.

The Problem

Within the hospital, pagers are used for communication between the staff. For example, caregivers often page doctors for the needs of multiple patients. This requires doctors to manually check on each patient in two ways. They must make sure that the patient being paged about is either getting covered by another specialist, or decide whether they need to go take care of the needs of that patient themselves.

One hospital realized that this process was taking up to 20 minutes of time and costing the hospital. During this time, the doctors were not taking care of patients and were costing the hospital money for standing around trying to make sure that each patient was covered. While this seems like a short amount of time, on average a healthcare worker goes through hundreds of these incidents per year. The time adds up. These incidents ended up costing this hospital tens of thousands of dollars every year.

To try and solve this problem, they used an outside paging service, but this service alone cost thousands of dollars per month. In order to solve this problem, the hospital needed a way to repeat messages to unanswered pages and involve a backup resource after that. By not requiring each person to manage their pages, the caregivers would be able to tend to the next emergency or task. This would significantly cut expenses for the hospital and would reduce the amount of dependency on outsourced paging services.

The Solution

HipLink provides an easy way to configure the hospital's unique process for patient coverage of several types of emergencies. In action, HipLink sent pages multiple times, provided grouping, and escalation functions. This means that caregivers were no longer wasting time managing their own pagers. They were able to continue on with their work with the assurance that patients in need were still getting help. They also provided multiple messengers so that they weren’t just relying on one system to communicate.

The Results

By using Hiplink, this hospital was able to reduce their monthly expenses. Moreover, they were also less dependent on an outside paging agency for their run practices. Hiplink also improved their patient response time, lowered operation costs, and increased productivity. It’s estimated that because of Hiplink, this hospital saved over $100,000 during their first year of use.

Time is so important in a hospital. Wasting time can cost mass amounts of money and lives. By using Hiplink, this hospital was able to make comprehensive improvements. They made more money, wasted less time, and saved more lives. This is why this hospital, along with many others, have implemented Hiplink into their business.

Loblaw Companies Limited shaped and in many aspects created the modern supermarket. Self-serve style supermarkets were an innovation, and the chain had over 1,000 locations with a new set of headaches to handle. Communication was top priority. That’s where HipLink joined Loblaw Companies Limited and had to make sure Canada’s largest food distributor kept up with the demand.

The Basic Issue

Loblaw’s technical support group had a lot riding on their shoulders. They oversaw the software that controls distribution, inventory, and billing departments (among others). They worked hard to make sure systems stayed active, but no program is perfect. When one system went offline, they had to be prepared to spring into action. Communication was key. Paging key personnel or placing a few calls was not enough. Too many calls went unanswered and pages were lost. They needed a faster, real time way to connect with staff on location to ensure the downtime doesn’t impact the entire business.

Technical Problems

Basic solutions like calling and paging were used for years, but as technology advanced, the need for a more efficient way to communicate became imperative. It can become quite easy for things to go wrong when you’re picking up a phone or sending a page. Even when the system is working perfectly, it’s time intensive and eats resources that the technical support group could be placing elsewhere.

The problem with replacing the system, however, had to do with size and scalability. Using phones and pagers wasn’t working perfectly, but it was working alright: orders were mostly getting filled, however the communication through manual paging and phone calls was very time consuming. Loblaw concern was that they didn’t want to jump from a workable, inefficient solution to one with greater drawbacks. “Out of the frying pan, into the fire” could drastically impact the business. Moving forward with an enterprise-wide solution wasn’t feasible. Choosing a difficult to implement solution wouldn’t allow them to roll it out to the rest of the company in stages. They were at a standstill until they found HipLink.

HipLink’s Flexible Solution

HipLink offered the functionality of other systems but with the opportunity to quickly launch a simple, straightforward solution that solved their immediate problems. Loblaw was able to see HipLink in action before committing to an enterprise-level system upgrade. It installed quickly and barely interrupted any workflow. Scaling was simple. HipLink rose to meet the challenges and impressed the support team with its responsiveness and ease of use.

Loblaw is a large company, but you don’t have to be a large company to benefit from HipLink. Wireless communication is key to handling time-critical, high impact information. HipLink is a powerhouse, whether it's used in one department or all of them. Best of all, it grows along with your business.

To read the full case study, click here.